The Dangers of Money
He who trusts in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf. (Proverbs 11:28)
Principle: never put a dangerous, powerful tool in the hands of someone incapable of safely handling it. The stronger the force, the greater the potential for danger. Money can be a powerful tool for blessing or a lethal weapon to harm.
How can you be sure you are using money wisely? Proverbs gives us several tests:
1. Do you take it from wisdom’s hand?
Notice how Lady Wisdom is presented to us: “She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor . . . . happy are all who hold her fast” (Prov. 3:15-16, 18).
2. Are you aware of money’s power in the heart?
“The rich man is wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 28:11).
How would you know if you were aware of its power? Ask:
a. Do you resist the fact that we’re talking about money—or are you truly appreciative for your own safety?
b. Are you in a hurry to obtain wealth?
“A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished. . . . A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth and does not know that want will come upon him” (Prov. 28:20, 22).
“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave” (Prov. 22:7).
c. Is sorrow in your wealth?
“It is the blessing of the Lord which makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it” (Prov. 10:22).
d. Is money a false security?
“He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf” (Prov. 11:28).
If money itself was the problem the Bible would exhort us to strive for poverty (which it does not do) and would not make statements such as:
“It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich” (Prov. 10:22).
“The generous man will be prosperous” (Prov. 11:25).
“Great wealth is in the house of the righteous” (Prov. 15:6).
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Prov. 13:22).
“Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it” (Prov. 23:4). “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money” (Heb. 13:5). “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil . . . .” (1 Tim. 6:9-10).
e. The heart uses wealth to escape reality.
“A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own imagination” (Prov. 18:11).
“Riches do not profit in the day of wrath” (Prov. 11:4).
f. The heart believes wealth sets one above the law.
“The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor man who has understanding sees through him” (Prov. 28:11),
“Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is crooked, though he be rich” (Prov. 28:6).
3. How do you pray about wealth? (Prov. 30:7-9)
Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die: keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.
What are the requests?
Keep deception and lies far from me.
If I’m poor I won’t worry about money. God wants me rich. I’ll be happy and content with more money. The more I get the more I’ll give.
Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food that is my portion.
4. Do you delight in money well-used?
a. Examine your generosity.
(2 Sam. 24:24). “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.”
(Luke 21:4) “[The rich] all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on”.
(2 Cor. 8:2-4). “that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints”
b. Our use of money is a window for the world to see God.
“Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce . . . ” (Prov. 3:9).
c. Well-used money builds faith.
Malachi 3:10 ‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’
d. Money well-used reveals the work of Christ.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).
