Money Disorder

Devotional Reading: Brilliant ideas pay off and bring you prosperity, but making hasty, impatient decisions will only lead to financial loss. Proverbs 21:5 TPT

If you’ve been in church long enough, you’ve probably heard the pastor say, “Jesus spoke on money more than any other topic.” It’s true that Jesus and the Bible have a lot to say about money, but this doesn’t help your anxiety over it.

I want to introduce you to a new perspective about your relationship with money. Fortunately for us, the Bible speaks to every common money disorder, and gives us a clear path to joy in our finances.

The first money disorder is called money avoidance. In short, you want to avoid money all together. This disordered relationship can force you to get rid of money fast, not look at your bank account, and earn less than what you need.

Money avoidance can also result from a belief that God doesn’t want us to have money. But the Bible is clear that the love of money is what we should avoid. Not money itself.

Money, in fact, is used for many good, Kingdom purposes. In Acts 2, we see the fellowship of believers giving money to those who need it. Further in Acts, we see Paul earn money through his craft of tentmaking (Acts 18:1-4). He used the money he earned in a Kingdom-honoring way.

The temptation here is to believe that all of our money should be given to others, and not ourselves. This is a form of money avoidance because we’re avoiding money to the point where our needs are neglected. But if you look at how Paul describes his work in Acts 20:33-35, you’ll see that Paul says the goal of his money is to meet his needs.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say money is a necessary evil. Instead, we see snapshots of committed disciples working for money, taking care of their needs, and giving back to the Kingdom.

If money is avoided, our needs get ignored. And if our needs are ignored, our impact for the Kingdom can be slowed.

Prayer and Confession
Pray that God would reveal your fears surrounding money. If you have a habit of letting go of money too fast or avoiding it all together, pray that God would heal this disordered relationship with money.

Further Reading: Matthew 6:24, 1Peter 5:2