Winning with Money 101
God wants us to win with money, which is why he put more than 2300 verses in the Bible on finances. I believe one of the reasons God talks so much about money is because He intends for it to be a tool that allows us to effectively fulfill our calling and fund the Great Commission. I want to share our journey of discovering God’s way of managing our finances.
Our story starts back in 1988 when we got married, just after I finished my business degree at the University of Alberta. I had some grand plans at the time, that included having my career and our finances well established before we started a family. Well God had other plans, and at the age of 22 I became a dad, and was only making $9/hr as an accounting articling student.
Out of necessity and personal interest, we started studying what the Bible taught about finances and our journey of discovering Financial Freedom God’s way began.
Our research findings can be put into 9 categories. The first thing we learned is the most important truth of them all, and that is that:
1. God Owns it All
- I Chronicles 29:11-12 (God’s ownership)
- Ps. 50:10-12
It is not natural for us to think this way. Most of us grew up thinking of our money as our own, and if we give to God’s work we are giving a portion of our money. It is revolutionary to think of it properly, and realize that everything we have is actually God’s. It totally changes how we view our earnings, our savings, our assets. It is a beautiful truth. Well if this is true then what is our role?
2. We are Stewards
- 1 Cor 4:1-5
- Luke 16:10-13
We have a huge responsibility to manage God’s resources, the resources he choses to entrust us with. Given the parallel truth God owns it all and we are His managers, then it is accurate to say that “Every Financial Decision is a Spiritual Decision”!
Every time we give, spend, invest, it is a Spiritual Decision. It is not uncommon for people to initially be uncomfortable with this concept. We can easily worry that if this is true, then we can’ spend money on the pleasures we enjoy. This is not accurate. God’s word tells us that He created everything for us to richly enjoy (1 Tim 6:17). We just need to pray about our decisions and make sure they fit with our calling and our stewardship.
3. Work
- Col 3:23-24
- Rom 8:28
Our work is very closely linked to our stewardship. God created each of us uniquely and He intends for us to serve Him by using our unique gifts. My experience has been that too many of us don’t take the time to confirm what God wants us to focus on with our careers. We take the easy road, or we purse the path that offers the most financial gain, and if so we end up frustrated and unhappy. We can’t be effective financial stewards until we are focused on doing what we are made to do. I love working with young people and helping them with this crucial part of their spiritual walk. For those of you who know you are doing what God made you to do, it is incredibly satisfying. It brings joy and fulfillment. Money is really just a tool that God uses to allow us to fulfill our unique calling.
4. Debt
- Prov 22: 7-10
- Deut 15:5-6
As we look at what God says about Debt, it is clear that it is not a sin but it is also clear that it is dangerous and viewed negatively. In Deuteronomy God tells the Israelites that if they obey His commands He will bless them with being debt free, but if they don’t they will be borrowers from other nations and will be enslaved to them. Long term God wants us all to be debt free. The most powerful quote from our small group study is:
Quote: “ Delayed Gratification is the key to Financial Maturity”
If we can truly live this quote, it allows us to live within our means and patiently wait until God gives us the resources needed to make a purchase. It is so easy to get into debt today, and most of the debt we take on is for things we don’t need, but rather things we want.
Wisdom would tell us to limit debt to things that appreciate (houses, land, investments, education) and avoid using debt for things that go down in value like cars, furniture, trips, etc.
After learning these principles we made it a goal to pay off our Mortgage early.Even though we were not making a lot of money in the early years of our marriage, we were able to be mortgage free by the time we reached our 15th anniversary.
5. Giving
- Malachi 3:10-11
- Acts 20:35
- 2 Cor 9:6-11
Giving and Investing are very closely related. I like to say that Giving is the only investment that blesses us twice, first in this life and secondly for eternity. We would be crazy not to take advantage of this promise from God.
I love how God tells us in Malachi that if we will bring the tithe into his storehouse that He will respond by opening the flood gates of heaven and shower more blessings on us than we can store. Just as important He promises to protect our resources from loss from the devourer. That is the best insurance policy we could ever ask for.
It is sad to see how few believers take this step of faith. In most churches 80% of the finances come from less than 20% of the congregation, and the majority of us don’t come close to giving a full 10% tithe. Too many of us are missing out.
Giving is an area that my wife and I had to work at, as I my first inclination is to want to save and giving did not come naturally. As we have grown in this area God has filled us with joy and thanksgiving and incredible stories of His provision. There has never been a time that we have given over and above in response to a need he put on our hearts, that we did not see Him give us more in return. We don’t give expecting to get back, but God is so faithful to bless us when we are obedient.
6. Investing
- Prov 21:5
- Prov 21:20
- Prov 13:11
- Eccl 5:10-11
- Eccl 11:1-6
We all love to talk about investing and brag about the investments that do well, but funny enough we stay very quiet about the ones that don’t! God wants us to invest in long term goals that fit our unique calling. He wants us to think long term. However He also wants us to not be greedy and know how to find the balance between investing and giving, and know how much is enough.
Investments that fit our calling will look different for all of us, but some examples include
saving to start a business
saving to start a ministry
saving for retirement (RRSP’s, TFSA’s, rental properties)
saving for college for our kids
saving to leave a legacy for our family
We need to make sure we only invest in areas we understand and remember we are investing God’s money. Unless we have time to do the research ourselves, using a trusted advisor to manage our investments is a wise move, and helps us ensure we stay diversified like Ecclesiastes told us to do.
For us I grew up on a farm and we love to spend time in the mountains. As a result we understand the farming market and the mountain vacation rental market, and those are two of the main areas we invest in. We also use a financial planner to manage our RRSP’s because we don’t have the time to do our own research and make good stock investment choices.
I stay away from things I don’t understand like Cryptocurrency that are purely speculative and largely unproven.
7. Crisis
-Mark 4:35-41
-Matt 7:25-27
The Bible tells us that Crisis will happen. Knowing this we need to plan in two parallel paths. First we need to build a strong foundation that can withstand crisis, and second we need to cry out to God when crisis occurs and trust him to calm the storm and bring peace.
Our role of planning includes the following:
work to become debt free
setup an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses
God tells us that He will take us through the crisis when it hits. I can tell you from personal experience He will. We were part owners of a business that failed, and went through loss of employment along with significant personal investment loss. Because we had put a solid foundation in place God’s way, we were debt free and had the finances to get through our time of being without work. God protected us from significant hardship and gave us a fresh start. This experience was difficult but was an important part of our faith journey.
We can trust God to do HIs part when crisis hits, and we need to do ours by building a strong foundation in advance of a crisis.
8. Finishing Well
- Matt 25:21
- Proverbs 24:3-4
We all want to hear God tell us well done when we get to see Him face to face. Proverbs tells us that wise people are builders, and build families, businesses, communities that endure. That is our goal. Serve God in our calling and build a legacy for His glory. Finances are just a tool to allow us to accomplish this.
9. Getting Practical
- Proverbs 27:23
Shepherds were stewards of their flocks. It represented their net worth, their livelihood, their main income generating asset. They were always counting their flock to make sure they were all there, and they were also always checking on their health to ensure they were not sick.
For us today, the equivalent of knowing the conditions of our flocks and herds is having a system we use to track our income and expenses and ensure our finances are healthy.
I recommend that you have two tools to help you. The first tool is an App to help you track your expenses. Most banks offer Expense Tracking Apps. I use the TD Bank My Spending App. It helps summarize your spending into logical categories like Food, Automobile, Housing, etc.
The second tool is a spreadsheet to manage your budget. You use this to do a monthly plan of your expected income and expenses to ensure you are planning to have a surplus, to spend less than you make. You also update it weekly with your spending and income information from your bank App, and you use it to keep track of your monthly rolling balances in each budget category. This is how you make progress with paying off debt, saving for future goals, investing.
Many people don’t take the time to do this, and they are actually spending more than they make each month without knowing it, and their credit card debt and line of credit debt slowly grows larger each year. We need to have a system that works for us to ensure this doesn’t happen and help us be good stewards.
I trust that this overview will help inspire you to take your financial stewardship to a new level, and pray that God will help you make your finances an area of strength, that you use for His glory!
Todd Payne
The Path Forward Financial Inc.