“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich,” 2 Corinthians 8:9.

Okay, so maybe you won’t instantly become financially rich, but finances is the lowest level of riches.  But, don’t rule out financial prosperity.  God is certainly able to bless you in that area.  There is certainly no biblical evidence that He wants you in poverty.  In Matthew 11:5, Jesus told the disciples of John to answer John’s questions of doubt with these words: ”The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

The best move toward prosperity any person can make is to love God with all his heart, soul, and might.  It is the true get rich quick plan.

They just keep printing more up, and the value isn’t what it used to be.  Money is absolutely necessary in our society, but the greatest value of money is seldom realized.  Money is a tremendous tool for reaching people for Christ.  Not that you purchase their allegiance to Christ, but meeting a financial need for people sure does get their attention to hear what you’ve got to say.

I recently heard a preacher say that he was filling his SUV’s gas tank, when gas was at its highest.  A man pulled up behind him at the pump, got out, and started complaining about the high cost of gas.  The preacher said, “I’ll buy you some gas,” and he filled the man’s tank.  He then led the man to place his faith in Christ, because his act of generosity had gotten the man’s full attention.  The preacher said that it cost him a little over $100 to fill that man’s truck, but it was some of the best money he’d ever spent.

Money used to bring glory to God is a great investment.  The Bible tells about a widow, who gave her last two coins into the treasury of the Lord.  Do you think she went home and starved?  Not a chance!  I would venture to say that her standard of living shot straight up.  It was the best investment she ever made.  The real value of money is to glorify the Lord with it.

When the presidential candidates were gearing up their campaigns, one of the first things we heard, was their plan for the economy future.  Candidates have long since learned that “we the people” are pretty gullible, and if they say it’s their plan, we will consider it good as done.  Four years later, there will be some excuse (usually the opposing political party) why it didn’t materialize, but a band new plan will be rolled out, and we will buy into it all over again.

God has a plan, and He never has to make an excuse for why His didn’t work, because when His plan is worked, His plan always works.  It’s really not complicated, and it can be summed up under the following points:

• Get out of debt, because the borrower is slave to the lender, and God intends for you to live in freedom.  You are to owe nothing to any man, but to love one another.
• Live within your means.  Be content with such things as you have, because contentment and godliness is great gain.  A person’s life is not in the abundance of things.
• Be a giver, because God says the way to get is to give.  God is able to make all grace abound toward you, and it is He who supplies seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
• Be diligent in God-honoring work (work that provides a needed product or service, and work that doesn’t detract from your Christian testimony,) because God said if a person will not work, he shouldn’t eat.  Laziness is consistently denounced in the Bible, and we are told to work so that we will lack nothing, and so that we will have to give to those who are in need.
• Lay aside a reasonable amount for emergency situations and less opportune times.  We are told to consider the ant, who gathers food in the summer with the knowledge that winter is coming.

Some people lack the discipline to handle credit cards, therefore, they should not have them.   Credit cards are convenient when used like a check, and the full balance is paid each month.  They are a financial trap, otherwise.

These biblical principles will work for anyone who will make them the practice of his life.  For the Christian, they are supercharged with the power of the Holy Spirit.  A love for God and an obedience to the principles of God’s word is an unfailing combination.

Dave Ramsey says, “Debt is dumb.”  I read somewhere that national statistics show Americans spend an average of $1.26 for every dollar they earn. If that’s the case, and if Dave Ramsey is correct, we are a nation filled with dumb people.

I have lived on both sides of the debt fence.  I have been so deep in debt, that I didn’t know how I would ever see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I have lived debt-free.  Debt-free is much better. I have made money on borrowed money, but I have also seen investments turn out quite differently than I had hoped.  I have also learned that the Bible teaches us to live within our means, and for the Christian, that should be our highest motivation.

When people in the younger years of their adult-hood purchase a house, it is usually necessary to secure a mortgage loan. People have to have a place to live.  There are instances when renting is a better option than buying, and if the decision is made to buy a house, people are wise to set a realistic price range within which they intend to shop, and only shop in that price range.

Getting out of debt requires a planned approach.  It will be very unlikely that it just happens.  A good approach is to begin with debts that have the smallest balance, and pay as much extra on that debt, as possible, until it is paid off, then go to the next one.

The Bible says, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”  If you are in financial bondage, you are not free.

Do you know people who arealways late?  You just know that they’re not coming until ten minutes after starting time, no matter what the starting time is.  Do they think they’re so important that everyone else ought to wait on them?  Do they want to make an entrance, so that everybody will see them?

I have seen many times when the speaker would say some foundational things in the first few minutes, that were absolutely necessary to understanding everything else that would be said, and somebody comes walking in after those things have been said, and the intended connection is not made.

It is disrespectful to consistently be late.  It conveys the message that you don’t esteem it to be all that important, or that you think you are so important that you can’t possibly arrive when everybody else does.

The Bible says in Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son…”  Have you ever thought about what a difference it would have made, if He had been late.  If you do a study on the time frame in which Jesus lived, you will see that there was a small window of time when everything came together just right for the Scriptures to be fulfilled.  God is never late.  There will be times that we cannot help being late, but they ought to be few and far between.