In Luke 16:11, Jesus explains a basic principle that should motivate us to study good financial management: "If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?" We have also considered how important He made this in the Parable of the Talents, when He called those who managed what they were entrusted with well "Good and faithful servants" (see Matthew 25:21 NIV), and the one who did not manage what he was entrusted with well, "You wicked, lazy slave" (see Matthew 25:26). It is well-established just how important this is, yet very few believers are devoting themselves to this. Why?
One reason may be that it seems financial management is complicated, and it takes a professional to do it well. Professionals have their place and can be a big help to us, but financial management is actually very simple. Sometimes professionals use a lot of esoteric language to make those not in their profession think that their craft is complicated, and therefore they are needed. But basic financial management principles can be learned in just a few hours. That is what we will seek to do in this study. You can then go on to become much more sophisticated if you want, and further study can help you to do even better, but the basics can be learned quickly and easily.
We also need to understand the place of good professionals if we want to make the best use of them. However, we need to understand how to use them to attain our goals, or they will use us to attain theirs. Even so, as we are told in Proverbs 11:14, "Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory." The key is to keep them as counselors and not let them dictate your course or business.
Bankers have their place, but let's face it, if bankers really understood business, they would not be in banking. So, you should not let a banker try to run your business, and many of them will try to. I have made bad financial decisions that I would have avoided if I had listened to my bankers. I also know that if I had taken all of their advice, I would not have accomplished any of the things that I have done quite successfully.
Accountants are invaluable, but if accountants really understood business, they would not be spending their time counting other people's winnings—they would be counting their own. So, you should not let an accountant run your business. But kept in their place, they can help you navigate through the tax maze, keeping you abreast of where you are financially.
Likewise, if stockbrokers were really good at what they were doing, they would be trading their own stocks. However, if you are just beginning to invest in the stock market, a broker can help you navigate through the system for awhile, but you need to know how to choose a good one, and not just a good salesman who has sold you on them.
You need to be the captain of your own financial ship. The bigger your ship gets, the larger the crew you will need to assist you, but you should never give up the control of your ship to someone else. No one is going to manage your affairs and resources better than you will. Counselors are needed, but never forget that they are the crew and you are the captain.
Now I am going to make a bold statement that you may have a hard time accepting at first, but in a short time, I am confident that you will believe it and use it to take much better control of your life. Using just a few simple financial planning principles can have a much bigger impact on your finances than how much money you make. What you learn in a few hours can mean more to your financial condition than all of the promotions and raises you will ever get. Believe it or not, this is true, and if you stay with me in this study, you will soon believe it.
The biggest mismanagement of all is our tendency to spend most of our time and effort on what makes the least impact on our ultimate financial condition. If you spend 5 percent of the time learning basic and sound financial management that you invest in getting promotions or raises, it can result in 95 percent of the wealth you build. That may sound like an exaggeration now, but this may even be understated, and you will see it soon. However, this is not to imply that we should not devote ourselves to doing the best job we can at our profession. However, what we give just a little attention to now can have positive consequences far beyond what almost anyone would expect.
There is one more exhortation from the Lord that establishes how important this is for us to learn, which is Luke 16:13, "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Those who do not spend the little bit of time and effort that it takes to learn sound financial principles will spend their lives serving money, always trying to get more so that they can make ends meet, or buy what they think they need. If you learn these few principles, you can turn this around and make your finances serve you instead of spending your life serving them. That is our basic goal here with this study, to help you take control and rule over your own life. In this modern world, money will control you if you do not learn to control it.
Every Christian should be financially independent. That has nothing to do with how much we have, but it means that we should never have to make a decision based on how much we have or do not have, rather on whether it is the will of God for us or not. We are called to rule in this life, and that means rule over our finances and not let them rule over us.
Many who are reading this are in very bad financial shape right now. You can get out of it, and you do not have to win the lottery to do it. In fact, the Lord probably does not want it to be too easy for you because He wants you to learn what you need to learn to get out of it. However, it does not matter how bad off you are right now; you can get free. The purpose of this study is to learn how to get the freedom to be who God called you to be.
Many more of you are doing okay, but you could be doing much better. If you do better, you will be trusted with much more. The King is in need of those who He can trust much more, too. This is not just so we can increase our standard of living, but so we can increase our standard of giving. He wants to use you to bless and help many more people. However, much more important than the financial resources He wants to trust us with, is the fact that He wants us to learn this so that He can trust us with the true riches of the kingdom—spiritual authority over any condition on the earth.
The authority of the kingdom trumps any earthly authority. The laws of the kingdom of heaven trump any natural laws. That is why the King of heaven was able to change any condition on the earth. He could calm a storm, multiply food, heal any disease—even raise the dead. Every earthly condition bowed before the authority of heaven, and that is the authority He wants to trust to His people. As He made clear though, we must learn to manage unrighteous mammon well before we will be trusted with the true riches of the kingdom.
Take some time to think about what it would be like to walk on this earth with the authority that Jesus had. He made it very clear in His teachings that this is what He wants us to do. What on earth could we ever have to do more important than that? It is true that all earthly riches pale when we think of this, and we need to always keep that in perspective as He trusts us with more earthly resources. Let us pursue this with all of our hearts, seeking to be the best stewards He could possibly have, because He is worthy.
