What the Lord taught me about Money

Many of you know that for most of our lives, my husband and I have lived paycheck to paycheck. We weren't "poor", we had enough to live a good life, but nothing "extra". Then my husband got laid off and we had basically nothing except what the Lord provided and He always provided, "just enough". He was finally able to find another job, and although it paid less, at least we could still pay the bills if we were very careful. The next stage we went through was unexpected and a surprise, but we wound up inheriting a decent amount of money. It really wasn't a lot of money. Anyone who makes more then $40,000 a year would probably laugh at the amount we inherited as though it was some kind of bad joke. But for us, it was a wonderful gift. Or so we thought at the time.

Especially after the strain of being unemployed, this money seemed like a great blessing from the Lord. Yet I have to tell you that within 3 months of getting this money, I was on my knees, begging the Lord to never, ever, give me a lot of money again! (or at least what seemed to us a lot of money lol) I told Him that while I appreciated the gift, that I'd learned a huge lesson from it. I'd always dreamed of someday "being rich" and all the things I'd do with the money. The people we'd help, the nice house we'd have, the things we'd do and give our children and grandchildren to help them, etc. And of course, the big part, not having to ever worry about paying the bills again. While we hadn't received anywhere near the amount of money that would allow us to do the kind of things in my daydreams, we still wound up with the headaches having such an amount seems to bring. And we didn't even tell people we had it, but somehow, people seem to be able to sense it I guess and they just come out of the woodwork.

People we hadn't seen for years, suddenly showed up or called to tell us their woes; problems that only money could solve of course. Neither of us have any problem giving money or anything else away, but we do like to be sure that we're doing the Lord's will and not simply wasting it. We've always handled our money, however much or little we had, according to what God says in His Word about it. One of the first things we did was pay our bills all up to date, which was very gratifying, although I have to admit, that it honestly didn't take much at all to do that since the Lord had always provided just enough to handle our bills. Still, I do have a bad habit of putting off paying hospital's and doctors, so that's what we paid off.

Another problem was that suddenly my husband went on a buying spree. I wasn't particularly concerned about it at first. I realized that it was a release for him after all the time we'd had to scrimp and not buy anything except essentials, and I admit too that it was very tempting for me to do the same and I also indulged myself a little in it. I watched that money dwindle very quickly. Oh, it lasted quite awhile, but because too many decisions were made on the spur of the moment, and without discussing them and asking questions of what the Lord intended for us to do with that money, it was soon used up.

Sadly, my very first thought when we received that money was, "I wonder what the Lord has given us this for? I knew He rarely gives us anything "in advance", and I knew that whenever He gives us anything, there's a very good reason for it. I always had a "feeling" for lack of a better word, that we were missing something important. I really felt that we should be saving the majority of that money, but because it wasn't "mine" as my husband had been the one to inherit it, I was afraid to push him about it or insist on anything concerning it. I no longer remember all the particulars, but I do vividly recall feeling very frustrated and stressed when we had that money; feelings I had never had when we were simply depending on the Lord to pay our bills! I remember constantly thinking that money was more of a curse then a blessing.

The Lord let His displeasure of how the money had been handled be known quite quickly too. No sooner was the money gone then many of the things that had been bought with it, stopped working or broke! And now we couldn't replace them. (It was also interesting to see which things broke and which didn't) Then things that we knew we should have used the money to repair or replace broke down. Yet, even then I still had this idea in the back of my mind that the Lord had given us that money for a reason and that the "reason" hadn't yet made itself known. It was another 6 months or so before I discovered the reason. My husband had a massive heart attack and was out of work for almost 6 months because of it. The money he had inherited would have been exactly enough, plus some "extra" (for those things we should have fixed) to provide for us during those months he was out of work.

The Lord was merciful and didn't abandon us or leave us in a lurch even though the financial problem was very much one of our own making. We had misused the funds He'd sent us for this purpose, but we'd also learned some valuable lessons from it. When you don't have to be concerned about whether or not you'll have enough money to pay your bills, or to buy enough food for the next week, or to get the medicine you need that month, or kind of basic necessities, you tend to leave the Lord out of the decision making. Sometimes it seems like you tend to leave common sense out of it too... at least at times.

For example, it never occurred to me to ask the Lord if we should buy this microwave or the other one, much less whether or not we should buy one at all! After all, why shouldn't we buy one? We had plenty of money! We didn't need one. We had a small one that my daughter Michelle had given us for Christmas 14 years earlier and it still worked just fine. But...it was very small, and it didn't do much except warm things up. Funny...up until then, we'd always been very grateful for it, but all of a sudden, it just didn't seem to be good enough for us anymore. (and yes, that's one of the things that stopped working after we bought it and of course after the warranty ran out ) It did teach us a good lesson though, as did everything that happened. Many little lessons and many big lessons over all. I've learned (I hope and pray!) to be content with what I have and not constantly be wanting more, and more then that, for I don't want to "just" be content, but to be thankful for it. 

I had been before we got that money, but suddenly greed reared it's ugly head, and we didn't even recognize it! Everything we bought had seemed "good" at the time. Nor did it seem "extravagant". I even fooled myself just as Bruce did, into thinking we "needed" some of it. Looking back though, I can see that 95% of it was nothing more then greed. Just as bad, we left God out of most of what we bought, and at times we even left each other out of it. We bought what we wanted, when we wanted, regardless of cost, because we no longer had to consider cost; so we no longer (we thought) had to consider what our partner would think about it, or what God would think about it.

We did repent of our sins, once we began recognizing them, and I asked the Lord to show me anymore that I'd missed. I sure didn't want to have to go through this lesson again! And, like I said at the start, and still mean with all my heart, I don't ever want to have "a lot of money" again! I've learned the great wisdom of this proverb: Proverbs 30:8–9 —Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. *Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. *

Hebrews 13:5 —Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” *
Proverbs 23:4–5 —Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. *When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. *