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What Does God Teach About Saving?.
By Keith Rawlinson
Volunteer Budget Counselor
Does
God have an opinion about Christians saving for future purchases or
future financial security? To answer this question, let's
turn to
the Bible and see what God actually says about it. I have
mentioned many times in my writing, that in counseling, and in my
finance-related Sunday school lessons, I refer to the Bible as the
instruction manual because that's what it really is. The
Bible is
God's written instructions for how we Christians should live our lives.
There are quite a few verses relating to various aspects of
preparing for the future, but I'll use just my most favorite verses on
the subject of saving.
There is desirable treasure
and oil in the
dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders all he has.
Proverbs
21:20
In today's language, this verse could be
interpreted to say that there are nice, and sometimes expensive, things
in the home of a wise person, but a fool spends everything he earns.
Well, the man who spends all he earns must be spending that
money
on something--and
it is
reasonable to assume that at least part of that is the purchase of
things. The difference is that, in biblical times, oil was a
valuable commodity and was basically liquid money. Oil could
be
saved up, sold or traded. Of course the word "treasure" meant
the
same then as it does today--cash and valuables. So, in this
verse, the wise man is building up a supply of things that are valuable
and can be spent or traded just like cash can be today. The
foolish man, on the other hand, is making a lot of purchases that
deplete the money he has on hand. He is also, most likely,
buying
a lot of things that go down in value. Thus, he spends all he
earns until it is gone.
Considering what "oil" and
"treasure" meant in those days, it is quite obvious that the
wise
man is saving. He is building up a supply of valuable
holdings.
It is equally obvious that the fool has little or nothing to
show
for his earnings. The bottom line of this verse, then, is
that
the wise man saves and the foolish man doesn't.
Here's another verse dealing with saving:
Who would build a tower
without first sitting
down and estimating the cost to be sure he has enough money to
complete it? Luke 14:28
This
verse is talking about carrying out a construction project.
Basically, it can be interpreted to say that it would be
stupid
to start a major construction project before there is enough money on
hand to make sure it gets completed. As it relates to saving,
this verse is a little more subtle than the previous one; but, the way
I see it, the only way to have enough money on hand to complete a
project you haven't even started yet, is to save it up. In
other
words, the way to make sure you'll have enough money to complete the
major construction project is to save. Some would say you
could just borrow the money, but trust me, God thinks borrowing is a bad idea.
Let's look at one more verse:
Go
to the ant you lazy person. Consider her ways and be wise,
who
having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the
summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
Proverbs
6:6-8
What
is the ant doing in this verse? She is putting up supplies
and
food in the summer and during the harvest when these things are
available and plentiful. Notice that the verse is not talking
about money, riches, treasure or anything like that. This
verse
is talking about the basics such as supplies and food. In
other
words, she is providing herself with security by saving up.
If she does not put
up supplies and food while she can, then she will have nothing to get
her through the winter. No doubt about it--in this verse, the
ant
is saving for future needs.
Conclusion.
These
verses, directly out of the Bible, make it pretty clear that not only
is it all right for a Christian to save for future purchases and future
security, God actually wants
us to do it. It's right there in the instruction manual.
So, what does God teach about saving? He teaches
that not
only are we permitted
to save, we are instructed
to save; therefore,
saving is one of God's techniques for handling money.
To
learn a lot more about where to get money for savings, how to save, how
much to save, and how to build your savings into wealth, be sure to
read the articles on my Eclecticsite.com Financial
Page.
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This article copyright © 2009 by
Keith C. Rawlinson
(Eclecticsite.com). All rights reserved.
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