There are many stories of millionaires who lived to make money only to lose their purpose in life. We often read of people winning lotteries and squandering their winnings on senseless lifestyles. And, there are professional athletes who grew up in poverty, became wealthy playing sports, but were taken advantage of and lose their money to those who prey on them.
People who earn or win large sums of money quickly, often don’t know how to manage wealth and end up losing it. Money has its dangers and limits. To look to wealth to solve fundamental material, spiritual, or emotional needs consistently lead to tragic results. There are limits to what wealth can do. As much as financial wealth is sought after, it can’t do many of the things we want or need it to do.
Wealth is not the source of life
To look to wealth for happiness means you will make bad judgment calls. Wealth is a poor source of happiness. Its ability to satisfy all our needs is limited. When it comes to the ultimate issues and 
values needed to live a successful life, wealth is, in one sense, worthless (Pr 11:4). To place your trust in riches is a shaky foundation and leads to disaster. Wealth doesn’t sustain itself but requires diligence and integrity. Wealth doesn’t make someone holy and philanthropic activities can’t soothe the conscience. And, wealth can’t stabilize your emotions when relationships are on the rocks. Those who think riches will sustain them will fall but those who rely on the righteousness of Christ will thrive (Pr 11:28).
Wealth has limitations. It can tempt us to not trust in God or give him thanks for supplying all our needs. “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse” (Pr 28:6 NIV). Wealth has the attractive power to distract, pervert, and even cause a person to deny the lordship of Christ. Judas is an example of the love of money misdirecting a person (Jn 12:4-6, Lk 22:3, Mt 27:3-5). Riches can be either a curse or a blessing. What determines the value of wealth isn’t how much a person has, but how a person manages their wealth under the guidance of biblical priorities.
Wealth, like fame, has no eternal value. To focus on accumulating wealth for the sake of being rich has been the downfall of many. Greed can persuade a person to think their life consists in the abundance of possessions (Lk 12:15). “Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death” (Pr 10:2 NIV). Chasing riches is exhausting and if they are acquired they last only a moment (Pr 23:4-5). To think money is the most important element in your life is to deny the reality that God and his moral laws don’t exist. Wealth can’t satisfy you when God is out of or on the fringe of your life. It’s like driving a Mercedes into a brick wall–there’s no sense to it.
The Bible constantly reminds us that to live a significant and satisfying life we need righteousness. Simply put, righteousness is living in accordance with God’s universal laws. The only possible way of doing this is to rely on the righteousness of Jesus. He alone was able to satisfy God’s holy requirements. Because he lived a perfect life he is able to instill in us his righteousness, which is of great value—one that protects us from wasting our lives on worthless endeavors.
Wealth is built slowly and deliberately
To be wise with your wealth means having the ability to see through the dangers of get-rich-quick schemes and hasty decisions. The wise person is industrious and hard-working, and not one who thinks wealth simply appears out of nothing. The accumulation and sustaining of wealth come from slow and deliberate actions taken in light of divine wisdom. The biblical perspective on building wealth includes at least three key elements.
1) Get-rich-quick schemes are common and fatal
Proverbs teaches that lasting wealth is gained slowly and methodically. Wealth is commonly built on securing a steady wage and not from gambling or risking all on a high-stakes investment (Pr 10:16). Extreme practices with money more times than not leads to extreme losses. The Bible teaches the accumulation of wealth in a very different way than does our culture. The worldly way of gathering wealth includes oppression of the poor, violence, fraud, bribes, and lying (Pr 22:16, 11:16, 13:11, 17:8, 21:6). It’s an attempt to get something without earning it.
Proverbs teaches that it’s “Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred” (Pr 15:16-17 NIV). Worldly ways of increasing one’s estate bring trouble to the family but he who hates bribes will live (Pr 15:27). It takes time to accumulate wealth just as it takes time to establish a good reputation. Proverbs stresses that there is value in maintaining both your wealth and a good name (Pr 22:1).
2) Hasty financial decisions lead to loss and foolishness
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Pr 21:5 NIV). “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring 
wealth” (Pr 10:4 NIV). The Hebrew phrase “lazy hands” refers to a slack bow unable to shoot an arrow. The hand is lazy or slack and won’t work because it’s negligent and undisciplined. Poor in this case refers more to an absence of labor than of social status or income. Whereas the diligent hand, referring to the elbow to the fingertips, is constantly working, attentive to its labor, and persistent in its effort to accomplish its task. The lazy hands are weak and ineffective. Diligence and not laziness is what produces lasting wealth.
3) Hard work, thrift, planning, and saving produces wealth
Here is a difficult proverb to understand: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest” (Pr 14:4 NIV). What does this proverb mean? It’s making a contrast between a clean or empty manger (feeding trough) and a field that yields an abundant harvest. The point being made is that energy and money are saved if the oxen aren’t used. The farmer doesn’t have to supply grain for 
the animals if they are not working. This saves energy and money but he also will not earn anything from unused assets.
But when the strength of the ox is used (using assets includes investing in labor) their labor costs are nothing compared with the abundant harvest they produce. The point is that when resources are intelligently utilized and invested in, the product and benefits of work will far exceed the cost of production. Hard work brings a profit while merely talking about work leads only to poverty (Pr 14:23). The person who loves pleasure rather than work will never become rich (Pr 21:17).
Securing your wealth
Ultimately, biblical wealth is secure because it’s given as a gift from the Lord. But what also secures wealth is a person who values it because he or she worked hard for it. “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow” (Pr 13:11 NIV). Nothing shelters wealth like a person who worked hard for what they have earned and is thankful to God for giving him or her the ability to earn a wage. You value what costs you something and you protect what you worked hard to obtain.
Yet, just as there are bull and bear cycles in the stock market, so the LORD gives and he takes away (Job 1:21). If you do lose your wealth, it’s not the end of the world. Since you were only the steward of God’s resources it was his wealth he removed from you. In other words, you lost nothing but gain everything if the LORD remains your God–even when hard financial times come (Ez 8:21-22). This attitude toward wealth is a safeguard for your heart so that money and material things won’t enslave you and dictate your purpose in life.
God operates his world by means of his laws. There exist divine financial laws that God uses to develop and distribute, as well as remove and reallocate wealth to his people. These laws appear to some to be random or unimportant. Others don’t recognize these financial principles at all. But the wise 
person seeks wisdom as to how wealth is acquired, how it is secured, and how to spend it. Using God’s universal financial principles to manage your wealth is the safest way to secure your wealth. God honors those who honor him and following his commands on how to handle wealth. For those who are humble enough to honor him as the giver of good gifts, he lavishes riches upon them (Eph 1:3, 7-8). Anyone foolish enough to think they can operate an economy without acknowledging or following the LORD will eventually lose their wealth (Pr 22:16 ).
A final thought
Imagine folding a piece of paper fifty times. That is, fold it in half and then again in half, and do this fifty times (assuming this is a possibility). How tall do you think the paper would stack after it has been folded in half fifty times? Although a piece of paper is quite thin, every time it’s folded it doubles in height. According to some estimates, it would tower more than 70 million miles high. This illustrates the power of compounding interest. Working hard to generate capital, being thrifty and saving at least 10% of what you make, then planning to invest that income wisely, will produce over the long haul wealth beyond your expectations. The wise person knows the value of compound interest and begins using God’s principles of finances as soon as possible.
Photographic Attributions:
Spending Lady with shopping bags https://www.stockfreeimages.com/9390299/Shopping.html
Pictures from various photographers at Freerangestock.com, Stockfree.com, and Pexels.com
