Money Is Not Always A Blessing

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

-Philippians 4:19

Philippians 4:19 is a reminder that God will provide for all of our needs, including money problems, but more times than not, our problems are much bigger than money. When we look back over our lives, we typically find that we spent so much time chasing after foolish goals and/or adventures that did not add much value to life and in doing so; we overlooked much more valuable aspects of life like time.

This has been my experience anyway and I often find that we have more in common than differences especially in the battles we face. The famous and often quoted, Zig Ziglar, once explained about money, “Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.” Money is one of those things that makes the world go around and it can do many great things but again, it’s not always a blessing.

This is not a lesson I understood when I joined the Give Your Witness ministry but serving in the ministry has taught many important lessons that I truly needed. More so, serving in the ministry has brought me many joys and most of these joys are not physically seen and they normally outweigh anything money can offer. Without question, there are some physical signs of enjoyment that comes along with ministry work but my biggest joys and rewards over the last few years have come wrapped in a different package.

Obviously, this is not an article that is going to say every Christian should be financially rich. If you’ve ever read any of my writings or listened to any of my podcasts, you know that I am not a prosperity messenger. That is, I do not believe that God makes everyone who confesses the name of Jesus Christ financially rich but what I have learned is everyone who truly and genuinely confesses the name of Jesus Christ will prosper but this prosperity will not always be in the form of finances.

This is a lesson that I wrote about in my first published book which is important in a world that puts so much stock on physical rewards that shine brightly. While shiny things are fun and are not evil, too often we forget that not every person who is rich is blessed by God but more importantly, just because someone is poor does not mean that God has forgotten them. In saying this, I do not want someone to mistakenly believe that God will not financially bless a person because he will, and does.

We experience this time and time again in scripture which teaches a bigger lesson: do not judge a book by its cover. There are many stories and lessons in the Bible in regards to the blessings and rewards from God and the recipients were both poor and rich and while money can be a great thing for many people, it can also be a burden to many especially if the individual does not have proper money management skills. One important aspect about God’s blessings is they are not a burden: “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:11).