Wealth as a Platform for Wisdom

What does it mean to be wise concerning your wealth? What is wealth-wisdom exactly? As with everything else, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge in this area also.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of financial knowledge, not just generic knowledge. Serve God. Fear Him. Read His Word. Read His Word with an absolute willingness to accept whatever it says. The Lord has the right to deal with you, and with anybody else, in accordance with His holy wisdom. He might require that you give it all away, as He did with the rich young ruler (Mark 10:21). He might require that you give half of it away, as He accepted in the example of Zaccheus (Luke 19:8). Or—and this is the really tough one—He might require a grim pietist to eat the fat and drink the sweet (Neh. 8:10). He is the Lord, and we should follow as He leads.

So what follows is not the same thing as being willing to receive the Word, but only so long as it doesn’t make you sound like one of those health and wealth guys. Yeah, they have their problems, but so also do those crabbed people who have an allergic reaction to anything that sounds like God might ever want to bless any of His children in our material things.

The power to gain wealth with understanding is a gift from God. We must never abuse it, most certainly not. But whatever material possessions you have (and if you are alive, you have some), you need to have the blessing of God on those material blessings. And if you need to have that blessing, you should most certainly seek that blessing.

A man can have ten dollars, and have sorrow added to it. He can also have ten million and have sorrow added to it. He can also be in either position and be under the blessing of God . . . meaning no sorrow added. If we are seeking the blessing of God, as we are commanded to do, then we want Him to bless what we have, whatever it is. And if we are receiving it all in faith, then we are to consider what we have as being under the blessing of God. We should reckon it to be so, and then walk by faith.

The one who thinks or assumes he can get on quite well with or without God’s blessing is deceiving himself. He is telling himself lies, and worse, he is listening to them. The person who does this is either trusting in his possessions directly, or he is trusting in his own abilities to acquire such possessions. But such a man is going to fall. He is headed for a crash.

The revenue of the righteous is a stream of goodness. It is good, and should be treated as good. What is not good about it? Affluence under the blessing of God is—and please follow me closely here—a blessing. But the very same dollar amount coming into the coffers of the wicked is bringing nothing but multiplied troubles with it.

So everything rides on what kind of person the wealthy man is. A rich man who is full of himself is no fun to be around, but I dare say that this same guy would not be a swell companion if he lost it all. You only want to be around someone with riches and honor and life if that person is also humble and fears the Lord.

Humility and the fear of the Lord. So seek out the blessing of God. Actively pursue it. As He begins to provide, take what He has provided, and honor Him with it. When He provides for you, honor Him with your blessings, and honor Him off the top.

A lot of Christians have trouble with this. It can sound really mercenary. Give me some of your stuff, God appears to say, and I will give you lots more stuff. They imagine parents talking to their five-year-old son, and telling him that if he gives them a quarter now then later on that day they will give him ten quarters. What kind of simpleton would turn down an offer like that? Does God think we are financial simpletons?

The answer to that question is not flattering. Yes. God thinks we are financial simpletons. He has to explain this to us like we are five, and He has to explain it over and over. If we have just a little bit of money, then ten percent seems to cut into the stash way too deeply. And if we have a boatload of money . . . well, do you have any idea how much ten percent of that would be?

But we should not look to Him for blessing because we are trying to work a system. No . . . if we look to Him for blessing in the right way, that means that we are trying to become more like Him. And that means that we want to be blessed so that we might become more of a blessing to others.

Many Christians assume that in the new covenant we have somehow been freed up to become ingrates. But God loves to bless those who themselves love to bless. We do not give to Him in order to get. We give to Him in order to get from Him in order to be able to give some more. Give to get . . . in order to give.

So seek the blessing of God in your generosity to others. Ask Him to bless your giving.

John Bunyan‘s little poem here is apropos—”there was a man/some thought him mad/the more he gave/the more he had.” God not only blesses when we give to Him; he blesses when we get to the poor.

The generous eye shall be blessed:

The man with a generous eye is not going to run out. God sees his generosity, and will see to it that it continues to be resupplied.

The man who is in a position to help the poor needs to see Christ in the one he is seeking to help. There is a spiritual trick in this because it is intelligent faith that enables him to see what he is doing as tantamount to lending to God Himself, and God always pays back with abundant interest. But at the same time, the whole thing is covered over with spirit of humility, such that the left hand does not know what the right hand just did (Matt. 6:3), and in the final day of reckoning, such a man will be baffled and say, “Lord, when did I ever see you hungry and give you food” (Matt. 25:37)?

So seek the blessing of God in all your pursuits. Seek His blessing on your wallet, your bank account, your pantry, your closets, your garage shelves, and your retirement account.

Seeking His blessing means that you want Lady Wisdom to serve as your financial advisor. She has a lot to say about this whole topic, in fact.

Lady Wisdom is the personification of wisdom, and she is speaking in this chapter of Proverbs. Her presence is a great financial blessing. Her favor is a glance that bestows.

So when someone undertakes to “make a living,” the first thing to do is not to get money. It is to get wisdom. Do you know what you’re doing, and why? Do you know who you are? Settle your identity in Christ before turning to the desk, or the workbench, or wherever your station might be.

Pursuing wisdom is not so much about what you do, or where you work. Everything rides on how you work. Wisdom consists of more than knowing; it consists of knowing what to do with your knowledge. Seek for that as though it were refined gold . . . because it is better than refined gold.

Seek the blessing of God on your house. Everything else is a detail.