My Christian Answers

This will be the first in a series of financial articles about financial contentment. I will set a good foundation of the attitudes you must have about finances before you can change the situation that you are in financially.

So, is materialism god to many people?

Here in America at least, if not most countries, materialism is god. Things people desire keep them stagnant in many ways. It imprisons them in dead-end jobs and leaves people cut off from the things that really matter in life. People miss the important things in life working to earn money to buy more stuff. The things you have are why you are stuck at a job you don’t like. The things that you don’t have, but just have to get will be the reason that you stay at the job that you hate. Some would say that there is no staying put in life. You are either moving forward or moving backwards. This point of view is probably more accurate for most of the world. While you may be stuck in some aspects of life, you are probably on a downward spiral in most areas. The never-ending quest for more leads most people into debt, which leads to marital strain, which leads to divorce, which just leads to many sorrows throughout life.

Surely, you have heard it before, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not evil by any means. In fact, money is great, every piece of money you have ever owned was a blessing from God, whether you believe it or not. James ch. 1 says “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father”. Therefore, money in itself is not evil. Paul says it is the love of money. The thing that gets people into trouble is that they love money (hope I did not sound too redundant there). People cannot get enough money. They spend more than they have, so, they always need more to cover what they have already spent. If you will be honest with yourself, most of you reading this blog love money.

You may say “If I loved money so much surely I would have more of it.” Well, in reality most of the people that love money are living paycheck to paycheck. Because the love of money is not simply the love of money, but is the love of what money makes available: power, position, and/or materials. The love of money could be defined in part if not completely as materialism. Materialism, or the love of “stuff”, is then according to scripture one of the main causes of evil. According to the apostle Paul in 1Timothy 6:6-10 those with much are not content. His advice and God’s advice is that if we have food and shelter we should be content. Anyone reading this hoping to get out of debt and take control of their finances should take that to heart. Contentment with the small things is the key to true happiness in your financial life.

To be continued…