In addition to regular assessment, make an annual date with your spouse to pray, review your finances, and discuss your goals for the coming year. The beginning of the year is a great time to start, but you can begin at any time. Focus on developing your budget for the next year and reviewing your progress in the previous year. Review the "numbers" for each category and then take a look at where your money went as it relates to saving and investing, giving, and living expenses.
Also take a look at whom or what your money was invested in. Was it time with family, saving for retirement, or a new car? Was your spending in line with the purposes God has given you? Finally, review what you did well. Celebrate those positives and decide what you need to improve going forward. Plan to do this every year and you will be surprised at the positives effects this has on your ability to be a good steward.
Have No Anxiety Do not worry if this seems overwhelming at first. You can do it with the right kind of help. Thankfully, God tells us that He will provide the wisdom and guidance we need, whether it be directly through Him or through one of His servants. Once you have been through this process, you will find it becomes much easier to repeat as an on-going discipline. The real challenge is establishing the right kind of habits to help you grow and become a better steward.
Every believer needs to develop a God driven plan for the money they have. The New Testament does not get rid of the tithe, it just explains the attitude that should be behind it.
Tithing is a demonstration that God is number one in your life. God wants us to be generous with the money He has given me. God tells us to share with others who have a need.
You are not throwing money away when you bless someone who has a legitimate need. The Bile sees it as an investment. When you give to someone in need, God says He accepts that as if it were an actual loan to Himself. God wants us to set aside money for the future. God knows the value of conserving money for a rainy day or a later day. People who save money are wise. God wants us to be satisfied with the money He has entrusted to us. Without getting into the details about the biblical view of wealth and poverty, we do find many examples and commands in the Bible verses about money about taking care of the poor, widows, and orphans.
God has provided a safety net for people in three different ways: the family, the church, and the state. Now, on the other side of this coin, we also observe many examples and commands in the Bible encouraging Christians to work diligently.
Since we are created in the image of God, we are hardwired to work, to create. What is more, God has commanded us to work. There are many positive benefits associated with gainful employment. However, since sin has entered the world, we will be tempted to worship work make it our god , reject work become lazy , or twist work do something sinful. Practically, this means through faith in Jesus, you will be empowered to glorify God in your work and for the good of others.
Who is a greedy person? Is it a politician? How about the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company? Or are athletes, musicians, or actors or actresses greedy? But let me ask you these questions:. How can I make such a bold statement? Even though God doesn't forbid debt, you still want to be cautious when you consider taking on debt.
If you are in debt not including your mortgage , prayerfully consider the steps you can take to get out of debt as soon as possible—especially when it comes to paying off credit cards. To manage your money, there are two steps you need to take:. These steps will help you make a plan, and there are many personal budget templates you can find online to guide your efforts. You have to use mobile giving or online giving to your church.
You can find forgiveness for poor financial choices in Christ, and you can be hopeful that he will help you to get out of your financial troubles. From the increase in cost of living, taking on too much debt, to unexpected expenses, there are a ton of reasons why we may feel anxious about our financial situation. Naturally, to resolve our situation, the first thing many of us do—including myself—is to think about making more money.
According to Richard Watts, author of Fables of Fortune , more money may actually cause you more problems. Making more money sounds good on the surface, and it may be the best course of action you can take.
To solve your financial problems, Bible verses about money worries encourage us to take this first step:. Today, if you're feeling stressed about your financial situation, take a moment to read these Bible verses about money worries, meditate on them, and take a break to pray.
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Products Learn. Access all Tithe. Login Sign Up Free. Church Signup. Looking for Bible verses about money? It also benefits all those who lend the money involved, typically bank depositors or pension funds. Similarly, an investment bank that helps an entrepreneur issue an initial public offering to raise capital to grow the business brings a kind of love to the entrepreneurs future customers, employees, suppliers, and community, in addition to the shareholders who purchase the stock.
All of these are market-rate transactions that bring love to bear for both borrowers and lenders. Finally, love can be shown by honoring and fulfilling the promises made in the transaction. This means seeking the flourishing of the other party as an end in itself.
Again, markets for other goods and services routinely do this—think of health care, for example—and there is no reason finance cannot do the same. Most if not all market transactions could feature this kind of love, and many do. Another question is whether financial prices—interest in particular—are prohibited by the Bible. For centuries Christians have debated the applicability of the biblical texts which seem to prohibit interest or the taking of collateral [1] as for example in this passage:.
You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent. On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
Deuteronomy For the most part, Christians have concluded that interest is not inherently prohibited in modern societies, but that lending practices— including interest rates and collateral—must not take advantage of vulnerable people or make people destitute.
This is in fact what we are advocating here—that finance is meant as a means of stewardship, care, and respect. To sum up our theology, we have argued that the purposes of finance are to bring glory to God, to enable humans to be creation stewards, and to allow justice and love.
We argued this by showing that God created the foundations of finance and then showing how these foundations enable humans to build four specific institutions on those foundations. Up to this point we have considered finance as God originally intended. But, we know that the Fall of humanity has marred every aspect of creation.
Sin has severely damaged the ability and propensity of humans to be stewards and to show justice and love through financial markets. Several sins are especially damaging to finance. Since finance is fundamentally about allocating resources, the sin of greed has a major impact on finance.
In fact, this greed and lying can seriously impair the ability of finance institutions to do the good they are intended for, and begs the question whether these institutions are so corrupted by sin that they cannot be redeemed. In recent history, nothing has been more demonstrative of the fallen nature of finance than the economic recession of What went wrong?
Is there a future for capitalism? How do society and governments move forward? In an interview with Ethix's Al and Nancy Erisman, Lord Brian Griffiths provides a compassionate, hopeful and insightful response to these questions. Many authors have explored the problems in finance and their underlying causes. Shiller reminds us that Keynes argued we have a spontaneous urge to action, which he called animal spirits, which causes financial markets to have problems.
Davis argues that over the past three decades some elements of finance—particularly institutional investing and securitization—have contributed to the waning of organizations which contribute to society and to the rise of a trader mentality which has a shorter term view and can damage society. Given the work of these and other writers, we will not expand on the evils that people intentionally commit in finance, such as fraud, deception, violence, racial, ethnic, gender and other biases, and the like.
These are much the same as ethical lapses in other fields of work. The article Ethics at Work Overview at www. We are more interested here in how the Fall may limit the ability of finance—in the sense of voluntary, market-rate transactions—to bring stewardship, justice, and love to both borrowers and lenders.
Are there situations in which finance must be replaced with some other form of exchange—private or governmental charity in particular—and if so, how extensive are they? In a fallen world is there still scope for finance to fulfill the purposes God intended? Joseph E. Gerald F. Ideally, market-rate finance is a blessing to both borrowers and lenders. This is similar to all kinds of commerce.
Producing and selling all kinds or products and services is meant to benefit both buyers and sellers. But, there are times when people need the product or service but cannot afford to buy it. This is as true with finance as with food, shelter, electricity, health care, or any other good.
People may need access to money who may not qualify for credit or who may be offered only unaffordably high interest rates. As with any other product, when this happens it is no longer a commercial transaction, but a subsidy, transfer, or gift. Instead we depend on donors, aid organizations, or governments to subsidize or purchase and donate items to those in need.
Yet at the same time, we do expect, or at least hope, that those who have in abundance will be generous. Finance is similar to any other sector in this respect. The Bible commends generosity in finance—. If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them. Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them. Leviticus If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.
You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Generosity is important. If we consider the grain market we see that God created the foundation for grain markets in that we are social, not everybody is equally skilled to grow grain, grain does not grow equally well everywhere, grain cannot be harvested every day of the year, grain is nutritious and our bodies cannot ingest enough grain at the time of harvest to last until the next harvest.
The Bible does not contain a general prohibition on buying and selling grain. However, the Bible does encourage us to not hoard grain and to give grain away to the poor, the widow, and fatherless Leviticus 19 ; Luke The Bible has similar teaching about financial resources as we have seen above. There is no biblical dissonance between allocating most financial resources via markets with a price interest rates as intended by God in his creation design, and also sharing some financial resources freely zero interest rates with family or the poor.
Both cases can show love to others. To those who have productive opportunities for money, lending with interest can be love. Lending interest-free to family and the poor who have not other access to funds can also be love. In general, the fact that finance deals in money, rather than goods and services, does not give lenders a greater obligation to do charity than other businesses and institutions. In fact, any business that ceases to operate profitably is actually destroying the value it is meant to bring to society.
As we have seen, the foundations of finance include its benefit to lenders as well as to borrowers. Whenever a financial institution gives away money, it deprives its own investors of some of their anticipated return. Given that the largest investors today are pension funds, [1] charity to borrowers comes largely at the expense of retirement income to pensioners. So, as in other industries, large-scale charity is not the role of finance.
Financiers have a duty to lend profitably, but they are not to profit from the vulnerability of borrowers. You shall not lend them [people in difficulty] your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. The moral issue arises from the imbalance in power between the lender and borrower. The lender has plenty of money, but the borrower is in a desperate situation.
Even in many market-rate situations today, the lender is more powerful than the borrower. For example, a bank generally has far greater resources, information, legal knowledge, legislative influence, and geographic presence than a customer taking out a loan. Sometimes laws prevent certain kinds of exploitation in lending, but even when exploitative lending is legal, it is wrong. In any case, no industry can thrive over the long term by exploiting its customers.
One contribution Christians can make in finance is to use whatever influence we have as depositors, employees, investors, directors, agents, and voters to reduce the exploitation of vulnerable people. There is only something to share if the loan makes increased productivity possible. So borrowers and lenders both have a responsibility for the use of borrowed money.
A car lease may make it possible for the borrower to get to work efficiently. A business loan may be used to finance equipment, inventory, receivables or other assets for growth. On the other hand, a mortgage made on speculative property or without income verification or without sufficient equity may damage both the borrower and lender.
A business loan made without due diligence may be squandered on unproductive assets. These examples reinforce the biblical view that finance is a shared obligation of borrower and lender.
Borrowers are obligated to limit themselves to loans that will make them productive and that they can be reasonably expected to repay. Lenders are obligated to assist borrowers in this task and to decline to lend in unsuitable circumstances. In practice, this can be quite difficult to accomplish. Borrowers may lack the knowledge to gauge the suitability of loans, or they may simply be short-sighted or impulsive.
Lenders may also mis-gauge the suitability of a loan, or they may be greedy, unscrupulous, or short-sighted. For example, the global financial crisis of began with defaults on mortgages that were based more on speculation—by both borrowers and lenders—than on good housing opportunities.
Lenders were aware that repayment would depend on housing prices continuing to appreciate from their already rapidly-growing levels. Ultimately all three kinds of participants—borrowers, mortgage originators, and investors in collateralized mortgage obligations—paid little attention to the time-bound nature of finance and the importance of relationships in which all parties share in the risks and gains.
As these situations show, in a fallen world, there are situations in which market-rate finance does not meet the needs of some potential borrowers while also benefiting lenders. Just because God created the foundations for markets and prices, does not mean finance is always capable of bringing complete stewardship, justice and love to resource allocation.
We must be careful not to worship the market or justify something because it is an outcome of a market transaction. Financial markets are a blessing from God, but they are not the only blessing and will not be a blessing in every circumstance. Governments and nonprofit organizations are also blessings from God. Further, in a fallen world, markets and financial institutions can cause great harm to society and to individuals. For a caution against worshipping the market and for an analysis of how markets fit with governments and NGOs see Van Duzer, Why Business Matters to God: and what still needs to be fixed , Chapter 6.
In this interview at the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture, banker John Gage discusses how while attending theological seminary he realized that God uses all of us in our various vocations for His mission in the world, and developed a renewed sense of calling to live out a faithful life in the banking industry.
God in his grace offered his Son so to that we can be reconciled to him and that his entire creation can be freed from the effects of sin. A reminder of what these terms mean may be useful here. Justice is treating persons with due respect for their rights, which are based on the fact that every human is loved by God.
Love is caring for other people by seeking to bring about their flourishing as an end in itself. Using this framework, let us consider some brief examples of redeemed finance in operation. Bank workers are at the front lines of financial services. Their first step in acting as means of redemption is to work out how their particular function within a financial intermediary is connected to justice and love for savers or borrowers, and then focus their efforts at being especially good at that kind of justice and love.
For example, a member of a bank loan resolution department could advocate for paying attention to the particular situations of borrowers. This does not necessarily mean a bank worker should oppose all foreclosures. But, it does suggest advocating for personal attention to distressed borrowers. If finance workers cannot, over time, figure out how their work promotes justice and love for savers and borrowers or cannot transform the organization in that direction, perhaps they are not a good fit for the organization.
Finance professionals need to pay attention to their own practice of two of the biblical foundations of finance. Second, finance professionals are frequently negotiating and entering into contracts, or promises. Stewardship and promise keeping are literally the sacred foundations of finance and finance professionals must thus act before God. How does our finance theology inform whether to make a loan to a particular customer and at what interest rate?
Several of the foundations of biblical finance come to the fore here. They have an important role in helping borrowers evaluate whether a loan is truly beneficial to them, and how to use the proceeds productively. Second, neither party knows the future, so both parties should be prudent and conservative in thinking about future scenarios. Both are well-advised to discuss what could potentially go wrong over the course of the loan and how to recover from potential difficulties.
Third, bankers can guide lenders towards loans that best show justice and love to the borrower. A loan that the borrower can repay without hardship is a just and loving loan. A loan that does not tease the borrower with a low interest rate that increases later is more likely to be a just and loving loan. Conversely a loan—in many cases a credit card—that is likely to lead to more accrued debt in the future is not a good way to show justice and love.
Interests rates vary with the riskiness of a loan as is necessary for the borrower to share in the risk-adjusted return on the loan.
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