Grace for Wealth; Part 4

Much of the church world has had an attitude about money that is totally unscriptural. This prevailing attitude is that wealth and Christianity don’t mix. This wrong attitude comes, I believe, from the monastic dark ages idea that holiness and piety can’t be obtained if one has money.
Along with this unscriptural error is another idea that has been added, which is unworthiness.

A large portion of the Church walks around feeling as if they don’t have any reason to expect God to give them anything. They feel like their past has been so bad that they don’t deserve anything from God. Most have worked very hard for God in order to “feel” accepted, but it seems the harder they try, the more they mess up. Does that sound like you? The question I raise here is not whether you deserve or don’t deserve the blessings of God, but does God want to give you His blessings? The answer to this question is an absolute YES! God’s grace is your answer. You don’t deserve anything, but God wants you to have it. God gave us Jesus (John 3:16), when we didn’t deserve Him, didn’t He? Jesus died on the cross for us, when we didn’t deserve it, didn’t He? Jesus provided heaven as our final destination, when we didn’t deserve it, didn’t
He? What makes you think that He won’t provide His blessings to you now?

Now, let’s get God’s Word on this. 2 Corin 9:8 says: 8) And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. The word for grace here means, according to Thayer, all earthly blessings, wealth, etc, which is due to divine goodness.

Why does God want you wealthy? First of all, He loves you like a father does a child. With that love comes the desire to bless. Secondly, He wants to finance the spread of the gospel. These good works talked about in verse eight are ministries that God has ordained to help expand His Kingdom. The key to getting this extreme wealth is that we must leave the world’s economy and enter into God’s economy.

The world’s economy works like this: You get everything you possibly can get and hold on to it as hard as you can. You work, beg, borrow, scratch, and claw for everything you possible can. You save it, hide, and don’t let anyone get it from you.

God’s economy works on a different principle. With our financial and material goods, we begin to give, give, give, and then give some more. As you give, God begins to multiply back to you what has been given.

Proverbs 11:24 reads: “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Here, we see an example of both types. The scatterer (giver) increases while the one who stores up (withholdeth) decreases into poverty.

I have heard many people lament that it seems the harder they try to get ahead financially, the further behind they get. If you aren’t trying to develop a giver’s heart, you will tend to poverty.

Now, giving is extremely difficult for most people to do. God’s grace not only brings things to you that you don’t deserve, but it will enable you to do things that are hard for you to do.

God’s grace will work on your heart until it becomes easy to give. Just like there is grace for works, there is grace for giving.

Galatians 6:7 reads: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

What this is saying is that whatsoever harvest you reap comes completely from what you have sown. If you find it painful to give, ask God for the grace to be able to do it. Ref 2 Corinthians 8:2-7. These people had allowed God’s grace to work on them until they actually enjoyed giving. Paul’s prayer here is that we abound in this grace, also.

I encourage you to ask God for this grace, so that you can enter into God’s economy. After you enter through giving, then His grace gift of finances can begin to flow to you.

​Doc Sharp