Wisdom with Money

We aren't able to know the future, and therefore it's wise to save and spend wisely. Giving to God and those in need is some of what should be done with money, but beyond that it's important to prepare for the future.

Many people might say that it's fine to not care how money is spent because God will provide for our needs. But God does care how we spend our money. God asks us to be good stewards. That means if we have money that can be saved, and its wise to save at that time in life, to do that.

Part of being humble is knowing our limitations. We are limited in knowing the future, and in response we should prepare for our future by working and saving. Not in a stressed out way, but in a way that is consistently making wise choices. God is sovereign and knows our future and directs our lives, but that doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility and aren't graciously allowed to play a part in God's story.

God cares about things that we consider to be small things. Some people may think that money seems to be such a small, unimportant thing in matters of spirituality. But God made money, and it's one way that allows people to interact and to show their heart.

God wants us to enjoy things too that we can have by spending money. And some money can be spent on enjoying things of life if there is money to do that and we're carefully considering the best way to spend money. That's why wisdom is important. Wisdom helps us to know how much to save, to give, and to spend on needs and wants.

Often, though, enjoying things doesn't require much or any money. Spending more times with those we love often costs nothing. And we may find ways that are much cheaper, compared to what we currently spend on having fun, to have fun.

How to Gain Wisdom
You might be wondering how one becomes wise or gains wisdom with money. I'd say if you know you need wisdom in that area, one thing that helps is praying for it.

The second thing to do would be to take a careful look at how you spend money and how much you have in savings and ask questions like how prepared are you for things like less work or an emergency.

When you're carefully looking at how money is spent and planning how you will spend and save money, don't compare yourself to others, like feeling like you need something that you don't because almost everyone you know has something or does something. It could be that people do these things but never need them. The only reasons some of them do them is because everyone else is doing them. And if they didn't, they might save a whole lot of money that they need. One example is buying coffee from a coffee shop very frequently. Often making coffee at home saves money. Or feeling the need to go with a group that goes out to eat every week at lunch. That might be very important in a way, depending on how it relates to your work and life, but it might be something that's not needed. And not doing it could save so much money.

I wrote a post on how to know things with your heart. I'd suggest everything in that post. One thing I included there is that it takes time. Patience is important in the process. Because you will be learning and growing as you go along. It takes time to get better at these things. So try your best now and grow when you see chances to grow.

What We Need vs. What We Want

Needs and wants are mixed together and often indistinguishable by the human mind.

As a grad out of college I worked on a small temporary project along with a man who had worked for many years making $100,000 per year before losing his job in layoffs. The man in his sixties said that he never had children because he did not believe he could raise a family on $100,000 per year.

The point is not what income is needed to comfortably raise a family, but a confusion of needs and wants. It became clear in my discussion with the man that often he could not distinguish between the two.

It is the human condition which blinds us to reality many times. Sin has an affect on human thinking. It clouds our rationality.

Often the affect of sin on the human mind is dismissed. Many great minds are not Christians and many poor minds are Christians.

The affect of sin on the human mind is not so much on rationality such as math and logic, but on moral issues.

At times moral issues are heavily related to financial decisions. Some financial problems are moral ones at their core.

Not all sin affects all people equally but sin can often manifest in the blurring between needs and wants. Sometimes the blurring can cause the sinful mind to accumulate great wealth ignoring what it is doing in the world.

It is not always the blurring which leads to poor financial decisions, but also sometimes the blurring which leads to good financial decisions at any cost.