Author E.E. Cummings once made this comment after reading a statement from his bank: "I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart."

Living beyond one's means is not an unusual phenomenon in our culture today, but it's nothing new either. In fact, the struggle to handle money wisely is as old as wealth itself.

Take a look, for example, at these words written by the prophet Haggai in 520 B.C.:

Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
(Hag. 1:6)

You may be surprised to know that God's Word says a lot about the subject of resource management. In fact, the Bible says more about money than any other subject.

Sixteen out of 38 of Jesus' parables deal with money. More is said in the New Testament about money than heaven and hell combined.

Five times more is said about money than prayer. And while there are more then 500 verses on both prayer and faith, there are over two thousand verses dealing with money and possessions.

God's Word has good news concerning His will for our life in this area. Without a doubt, God wants you to prosper in every area of your life, and He has given us the keys to financial success in His Word!

God has entrusted every person on earth with three basic resources: time, money, and relationships. Your skill in managing (stewarding) these resources has a huge impact on your quality of life.

Even more importantly, it determines whether or not you fulfill God's highest plan for your life. I want to talk to you about managing your material resources or, in other words, your money.

It's a fact that few things can complicate your life more completely than mismanagement in the area of finances. But before I can address the nuts and bolts of biblical financial planning, it's vital that I establish the only valid objective for growing wealth.

The Word of God makes it clear that the driving force behind our efforts at acquiring and managing wealth must be a desire to maximize the amount of money we have available to plant seed in the kingdom of God.

We must strive to sow as much seed into the preaching of the gospel as we possibly can. That must be your primary motivation for managing your money. Manage your material resources to this end, and God promises to bless you in every area of your life.

Generating Income:
Ephesians 4:28 is a very revealing verse where money matters are concerned. It says: "Let him who stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."

The dictionaries define the word "labor" as a diligent, consistent effort. Here, in a nutshell, is God's plan for income generation. He wants you to be hardworking and persistent in your vocation.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks whose approach to work is punching the clock in the morning, doing as little as they can during the day, and leaving early in the afternoon. That's not God's way. You won't have Him involved in your financial life if you're not making a diligent consistent effort at that which is good.

This is what initiates a responsible financial management plan. Once you've labored diligently, you will have something to manage. So, what's next? The Bible is clear on this matter as well. The first thing you do, once you have generated an income, is to honor God with your tithe.

The Tithe:
Let me begin by giving you a definition of the tithe. The biblical word translated tithe literally means "tenth." Simply put, it's the first tenth of your increase. Since most of us deal primarily in dollars and cents rather than crops and flocks in today's culture, the tithe would be the first ten percent of the income you generate.

Though the tithe is clearly defined as the first tenth, I don't want you to look at this legalistically. You need to understand the principle of the tithe. While space does not permit a thorough treatment of the subject here, there are many other excellent resources if you desire more information about the tithe.

For the purposes of this discussion, let it suffice to say that no financial plan has a chance of succeeding if you're not taking the most fundamental step of stewardship before God honoring Him with the tithe.

The next step is to determine what to do with the remaining ninety percent. When it comes to figuring out how to allocate your expenses, there are three basic concerns: family needs, debt elimination, and seed.

Meeting Your Family's Needs:
Once you've honored God and acknowledged that you are a "steward" rather than an "owner" by paying your tithe, the next priority is to address the needs of your family. Contrary to what many Christians believe, it is important to do this before you get down to considering what other gifts or offerings you should make. There are responsibilities that have to be fulfilled.

There are intermediate concerns that have to be addressed. You have needs. Your family has needs. These needs have to be addressed. You don't just labor, generate an income, and give everything away.

Once you've labored at that which is good, you now have a responsibility to use that income to meet your family's needs. First Timothy 5:8 makes this clear: But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

This is a strong statement. God is saying He expects us to provide for our families. He says the first concern regarding the use of your natural resource (after you've generated an income and given God the tithe) is to take care of your family.

Scripture is very clear; the needs of your family are a top priority. Of course, need is something that is very subjective. Nobody else can define your need for you. It's between you and God.

The question that arises is, "How do I distinguish my family's needs from our wants?" A good way to do this is through a simple self-check: Ask yourself, "after my needs are met, do I have any seed left to sow?"

If you don't, you're calling something a need that really isn't. God gives you a guarantee that if you labor at that which is good and tithe off the income, you'll have something left over to give to them in need. So if your budget doesn't leave you anything left to sow, you're calling something a need that really is not.

Debt Elimination:
The United States has become a nation of debtors. Levels of credit card debt are soaring. In fact, a recent report stated that personal consumer debt is currently increasing at a rate of $1,000 per second!

Sadly, Christians are seemingly just as prone to debt problems as are people in the world. What does God's Word have to say about this subject? Romans 13:8 says, "Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

This doesn't mean that it's a sin to borrow money. Let me be clear: it's not sinful to borrow money. The Word translated "owe" here means "to be under obligation with the emphasis on failing in that obligation or duty."

So understand that scriptural debt only occurs when you fail to meet an obligation to repay what you've borrowed. How do I know this? Deuteronomy 15:6 tells us that one of the blessings of redemption is that we become "the lender and not the borrower."

If it were wrong to borrow, would God have us participate in lending? Of course not! He goes on to instruct us not to charge usurious or unfair interest rates if we are lending to a fellow believer (Deut. 23:19).

With that said, it's important to realize that it's not God's best for you to borrow money. He says you're in a subservient position to the lender when you do (Prov. 22:7). Therefore, a part of your financial management plan must include a strategy to eliminate debt.

The best way to eliminate debt is to manage your finances in a way that leaves you money to sow as seed. Debt elimination occurs supernaturally when God brings increase to the seed you've planted.

Supernatural increase in the kingdom of God does not come through wise investing, astute choices of stocks, or a strong 401K program. It comes by the seed principle. It comes through sowing and reaping.

To generate the increase needed to eliminate debt, you're going to have to get some seed into the ground. Therefore, your financial management plan must involve managing your expenses in a way that leaves you with something left to sow as seed.

Ultimately that's what makes it possible for God to take care of debt on your behalf. There are few things more liberating than being free of debt. It's a place we should all use our faith to reach. And it's the seed principle that's going to get you there.

Sowing Seed:
What is seed in God's spiritual order of sowing and reaping? In Mark, Chapter 4, Jesus gives us the parable of the soils and in verses 13-14, He says, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word." Later, in verse twenty, Jesus mentions the fruit or the increase that comes from the seed sown.

In these passages, God is saying two things. First, He says that understanding the concept of sowing and reaping is a key element in understanding all parables. Second, He gives us a very clear definition of seed. He says the seed is "the Word."

We also learn in Verse 15 that the spiritual "ground" that receives the seed is the human heart. When we talk about money in the sense of sowing and reaping, we need to understand that money becomes seed when we use it to facilitate the sowing of the Word of God into the human heart.

When we do this, God says He will increase the seed sown. When we plant a seed of corn, we don't get one stalk with one ear and one kernel. We get literally thousands of kernels of corn from the planting of one seed. God increases or multiplies the seed sown. He'll meet all of your needs and leave you some seed left over to plant into the preaching of the Gospel. That is, of course, if you are a sower.

What is a Sower?
The Word "sower" is an interesting word. If you look it up in your concordance, you'll find that it means, "to scatter liberally." God does not want us to be conservative in our approach to giving. On the contrary, He wants us to scatter. He wants us to give liberally and without restraint. Your attitude toward seed has to be characterized by a willingness to scatter.

This is the kind of person He's looking for. This is the kind of person God can trust when it comes time for giving out seed. He will increase and multiply the seed you've sown, for God gives seed to the sower (2 Cor. 9:10).

As we've seen, if you follow the scriptural pattern of budgeting your money, God says there will be something left over after your family's needs have been met. You should consider that "something" your seed to sow. And you need to use it to get the Word deposited into the hearts of people. When you do so with a liberal, scattering approach, He says He will meet your need according to His riches in glory (Eph. 3:16).

Not only will you have seed to sow, but He'll multiply the seed sown and He'll increase the fruits of your righteousness. He says you'll be able to abound to every good work. You will experience all sufficiency in all things (2 Cor. 9:8-10).

Do you want to mend the holes in your pockets? Are you ready to have "all sufficiency in all things?" Align your approach to all your earning, budgeting, spending and sowing with God's principles of resource management. You'll soon discover how simple life can be when you do things His way.

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
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