The Commerce Bank Review

Many Christians have the ability to accumulate large amounts of wealth. Virtually everyone in America has the potential of accumulating a surplus. What we consider to be a minimum standard of living is significantly above that experienced in most other parts of the world. It is not unheard of for someone living on a small fixed income to accumulate tens of thousands of dollars through scrimping and sacrificing. With that potential, it becomes vital that God’s attitude about accumulating money becomes a part of our personalities.

God will provide a ministry in money for Christians attuned to His plan. But it is a ministry of sharing, not of selfishness. A Christian who reclaims ownership of his finances steps right out of God’s will. Others, who share as God commands, receive the blessings of the Lord and the great harvest promised in Scripture. Once a Christian accepts money as a ministry, a whole new area of God’s will opens up.

In 2 Corinthians 9:8, we are told, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” What are the absolute promises given here?

1. God will make all grace abound in each one of us.
2. We will always have sufficiency for our needs.
3. We will have an abundance for other good needs.

If you have the ability to make money, as a Christian you must have the desire to share. If you are making money and not sharing it, you can be certain you are not within God’s will and probably that money is being supplied from another source.

It’s important to realize some more religious folklore comes to the fore in this area: to give money is gracious, but to make it is a sin. Wrong! God said giving is a gift. If giving money is a gift from God, making it must also be a gift from Him. Christians should accept the principle that there is nothing wrong with making money, provided you do so within God’s plan.

Do not violate the principles that God established. Remember the symptoms: sacrifice of friends, family, health, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ to the pursuit of wealth; attitudes characterized by bitterness, anxiety, frustration, or worry. Exactly the same principles apply for the those who have not learned to live within the provision God has supplied.