Hello, some people believe that money is worthless and some think life has no understood meaning. They will quote,”You can love only either God or money, you will hate one and love the other”. So by hating money, they disregard it. However in this article, I’m going to explain that if you love God, you should strive for money. The key is you should not use your money on luxuries for yourself, but instead help the poor with it. In this way, you can hate money by working for it, but giving it away.
God is king and rules all things. We should seek to serve in his kingdom. If you find good volunteer opportunities for your time, or if you work in the church, aim to do the best that you can. If you do not have any volunteer positions, or you do not work in the church, one of the ways to focus on God’s work is by focusing your help towards the poor The key is finding the best place you can work at that is also moral. At your work be loving and Christlike, and maybe your coworkers will see Jesus in you.
Once you get paid, do not seek to indulge in luxuries. Instead, live a frugal lifestyle. Avoid buying things that don’t have utilitarian use for yourself. You should buy things that educate yourself or your children. Tools are good to buy in order to make your work more efficient. Communication(phones/internet) is worth buying because you can help others out. These aren’t the only things you should buy, but examples. A frugal lifestyle is one you get more skilled with over time.
With your excess money, help the poor. Put it away in savings until you have about 50,000-100,000$ put away for emergencies. If you have a family, you might want to save more. Then once you have money saved away, either give to the poor or invest to help the poor later. In all you do, remember the man who built bigger barns but didn’t help the poor. *v1 When he died, he hadn’t given anything to the poor. So while you’re building wealth, give a trickle to the poor. This way, you show your intent to God even though the goal is to give large sums once you’re on your feet.
Also remember the Widow’s Mite.*v2 Jesus praised the woman who gave everything she owned to help the church. We cannot do this ourselves by simply giving all our money away immediately. A 20 year old man can’t go,”All I own is 1$. I’ll give it away, and I’m doing a great service.” It might be a good place to start, but you still have time to work and earn more money. A lifetime of working and donating is what really shows you hate money, and that you want to help the poor.
Children starve to death for what thirty cents could buy them in food each day. If enough of us started helping the poor, even just a small percentage of us, world hunger could be solved in this lifetime. People keep talking about world hunger as an impossible problem to solve, but it can be solved with enough people individually donating. And as more and more people donate, the problem gets incrementally solved. So try your best to help the poor. Only when you meet God can he tell you how well you did and give you praise.
-James Sager
*v1: Luke 12:16 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. 17 He began to think to himself, “I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? 18 This is what I will do,’ he told himself; “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. 19 Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’ ” 21 And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.”
*v2: Luke 21:1 Jesus looked around and saw rich people dropping their gifts in the Temple treasury, 2 and he also saw a very poor widow dropping in two little copper coins. 3 He said, “I tell you that this poor widow put in more than all the others. 4 For the others offered their gifts from what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on.”