…For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21.
In most cases, the financial struggles couples face are the result of violating fundamental principles. Could you get by if all you had was sixteen million dollars in assets? I think I could make that stretch.
I will always remember a middle-aged man who asked if he could come by the church and take me to lunch. He picked me up in his Mercedes, took me to a fancy restaurant and insisted on charging the meal on his American Express card. After a very pleasant lunch, he looked at me and said, “I need you to pray for me. I have sixteen million dollars in assets, but I also have twenty-one million dollars in debts. I can’t hold my creditors off any longer, and I’m going to lose everything.”
God warns against debt. Chuck Swindoll’s book Strike the Original Match has a chapter aptly titled, ’Til debt do us part. The person who earns thirty-five thousand dollars a year and spends thirty thousand is in much better shape financially than the person who earns three hundred and fifty thousand a year and spends three hundred fifty-five thousand. The more digits there are in your paycheck, the more careless you are tempted to become. But, if you spend more money than you earn, you are violating God’s principles and are headed for trouble.
The man with sixteen million dollars in assets ended up losing his businesses, houses, and cars and after he lost his sobriety, he lost his wife as well. The scariest part of his story is that if you had seen him in church or at the country club a year before his financial ruin, you would have said, “Now there is a successful Christian businessman.”
What do we mean by successful? In this context, we mean he’s got it all. He believes the Bible, goes to a good church, lives in the right neighborhood, drives a fancy car, and has a mansion with the latest technology. But, it was all a house of cards. We tend to judge by outward appearances, and sometimes people work with great creative energy to make their house of cards look very good. But it all comes down in a hurry.
I was in a better position to pay for lunch than the man who drove me to the restaurant in his Mercedes. If you look at my net worth, you won’t find a lot of digits, but the ones you’ll find are in the positive column. If you have a positive cash flow, you are way ahead of the man who is in debt.
How different this man’s story might have been. I know another man who lost his fortune in a similar way. While he was busy building his dream house, his subordinates ran his businesses into the ground. When I visited his home down a cobblestone driveway behind massive iron gates, I was amazed at the grand scale and intricate detail of his mansion. But while the first man turned to the bottle, this man turned to God. And after he had given his life to Christ, God did something he doesn’t always do. He miraculously restored this man’s fortunes. Now, instead of losing his home, God enabled him to keep it. But, he chose not to keep it.
He told me, “Before I knew Christ, I needed this house to make me feel like somebody. Now that I know Christ, I don’t need this house. Now, I just want to take what God has given me and use it to do some good.” Ironically, he and his wife found that moving from a two and a half million-dollar home to a two hundred fifty thousand dollar home was a significant improvement in their quality of life. They have friendly neighbors and their child has safer surroundings in which to develop independence. They spend less time on household maintenance and more time in intimate family and church relationships.
God forbids dishonesty, and warns of the consequences. Don’t ever think that in your particular line of work dishonesty can be excused, because everybody’s doing it. The Bible states repeatedly that dishonest business practices make God angry. The book of Revelation singles out liars for special emphasis when talking about who can be sure of ending up in hell (Rev. 21:8).
God warns us not to be selfish and impatient. He says that greed is idolatry, and that anyone who is eager to get rich quick will bring great pain to his family.
He warns against cosigning for people who can’t pay. And, of course, He warns against laziness and commands us to work hard for our employers, even when God is the only one who notices our hard work.
Obviously, I have not sought to provide an exhaustive treatment of everything the scriptures say about finances. Rather, I have endeavored to lay the groundwork for a different mindset toward personal wealth. I am convinced that the basic need of married couples when it comes to finances is to take that area, along with every other area, and submit it to the Lordship of Christ. If Jesus is Lord of our finances, then we can work out the details much more easily.
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