Last week we studied how Jesus is greater than temptation. This week we are moving right along with that theme with “Jesus Is Greater Than Poverty”. God placed in His Word the way we can have our needs met and be lifted out of poverty.

We find in Joshua 1:8 an instruction on prosperity; we are to meditate on the Word of God day and night, observe to do according to what is written, and then our way is made prosperous and we will have good success. Notice it doesn’t give a defining dollar amount for one to be prosperous, even though we need money for our daily lives. That’s because prosperity is more than just money, prosperity also includes good health, and good relationships, etc. A person may think they are not prosperous because they don’t have as much money as their neighbor or a relative, but if they have all kinds of medical bills from doctors and prescriptions, and you don’t because you are healthy, the truth is that you are more prosperous than they.

The next thing we learn is from Malachi 3:10-11 where God promises to open the windows of heaven for us when we tithe and give offerings. He goes on to say that these blessings are such that we would not have room enough to receive them. Now that’s a lot of blessings! Then He tells us that because we tithe and give offerings, He will rebuke the devourer! The devourer is no other than the devil mentioned in John 10:10 as the one who comes to kill, steal, and to destroy. So then, it’s safe to say that if we don’t tithe the devourer is not rebuked.

The other thing mentioned in Malachi 3:8 is that a person robs God when they do not tithe and give offerings. Verse nine goes on to say that because they did not tithe, they were cursed with a curse, even the nation. The answer to avert (ward off) the curse and gain the blessing is obedience to “bring all their tithe into the storehouse”, which is His house, the church where you attend. Think about it: if members and attendees of a church never give monetarily, then the church cannot pay its bills and it doesn’t have any extra over-flow to help those in need. Just think about it. Therefore, when we give and when we don’t, it affects our church, community and Nation.

When we eat in a restaurant to feed our natural body, we pay for our meal and usually also tip the waiter/waitress. When we attend church and hear the Word of God, it feeds our spirit; it’s only right that we pay our tithe to God for His Word. Oh, and just maybe the extra we give as a tip to the server in a restaurant could also be related to other offerings we give to missionaries and ministries who serve in the Kingdom of God. Maybe a funny analogy but it makes sense to me.

Another important key attached to prosperity is our heart attitude to giving. Second Corinthians 9:7 teaches that as we purpose in our heart we are to give. This purpose not only applies to the monetary amount but also the attitude of our heart. We can learn three things from this Scripture. 1) We need to purpose in our heart the amount to give in extra offerings, and to me this also means setting aside the amount and not spend it on groceries, clothing, or fun, etc. 2) We need to have a right heart-attitude by being a cheerful giver, not selfish or grudgingly. 3) Offerings should not be out of necessity; not paying our bills on time is not a good witness to the world. This also means not using our tithe to give in other offerings or daily expenses. Please understand that the tithe is a tenth of what one makes and the tithe is a set amount according to the wages of a person’s salary. But offerings can be any amount as you purpose in your heart and as the Lord leads.

On a personal note, we have a category in our budget labeled missions where we set aside a certain amount from each pay check to give to various ministries, missionaries, etc., and to our church for special speakers and the building fund and maintenance, as God directs. This mission category does not include our tithe money as it is a separate category of itself. It might be obvious, but I’ll mention this anyway, our budget has categories for auto, clothing, gifts, groceries, housing, medical, insurance, miscellaneous (toiletries, etc.), savings, and vacation/recreation.

The budget works this way: you figure the average amount of a category costs a month by adding together the previous 6-12 months, which probably vary in the winter and spring etc.; divide that amount by the number of months you added together, and that gives you an average amount that’s needed for that category each month. It easy if you get paid once a month, but if you get paid by-monthly, every 2 weeks, or weekly, then you figure it accordingly.

Be careful to figure correctly; 12 months to a year: paid monthly is 12 pays, but by-monthly is 24 pays a year; and every 2 weeks is actually 26 pays a year; weekly is of course 52 pays a year. At first, I wasn’t going to include this last information but someone might really need to know this when beginning to set up their budget. Then from each pay you place an amount in each category and when the bills come in, you have the money to pay them. Or, if you want to shop for clothing, you know how much you can spend. It isn’t hard but it does take discipline and time to fine-tune it in the beginning, but then it just falls into place.

Another Scripture for giving is in Luke 6:38 where we are taught that whatever the measure is that we give, it will come back to us. Second Corinthians 9:6 gives us good understanding about the principles of giving: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”  This doesn’t mean that your generous amount will be the same as someone else, nor theirs the same as yours. To me, this means that if we want God’s blessings to come to us in abundance then we need to be cheerful about giving and to be generous with our giving.

Another area about prosperity that each person needs to evaluate and that’s how they view their money. God wants us to be blessed but He doesn’t want us to be in love with having money. First Timothy 3:3 says that we are not to be a lover of money; and First Timothy 6:10 tells us why: because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. (NIV) This doesn’t mean we can’t have money it just means we are not to put our trust in it; our trust belongs only in God Almighty and His Son Jesus.

How we spend our money reveals what’s important to us. How important is the work of God’s Kingdom to you? Would your checkbook reveal your love for Him in your support of your church and other ministries to bring the Gospel of Jesus to this world? These are questions everyone needs to ask themselves and allow God to show us the real motives in our heart for wanting prosperity.

Our prosperity, God’s blessings, are to be enjoyed, yes, but they also are to be used for bringing glory to God.