What You Do With Your Money Will Have Eternal Consequences

Some decisions in life are so important you can’t afford to get them wrong. For the believer, the decision to accept Christ as Lord and Savior is one of those decisions. There is another choice we make that has incredible importance. Dr. Wesley Willmer, in his book, God & Your Stuff, teaches that how we handle our earthly possessions directly impacts our eternal soul. Jesus’ teaching in Luke (chapter 16) stands as a warning that we should not take our material blessings casually. The scripture centers on two rich men and their struggles with possessions. In fact, money and possessions is one of the most prevalent subjects in the Bible – perhaps because money has the greatest chance of replacing God in our lives. Look at Luke 16:13:

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money).”

How do you measure the quality of your relationship with God? Author Randy Alcorn says: “There is a powerful relationship between a person’s true spiritual condition and his attitude and actions concerning money and possessions.”

Practical Help

Dr. Willmer teaches that there are three principles that will help us:

1. Our possessions are to be used as a tool to further God’s kingdom here on earth. When we enter heaven, we want to meet people who will say “Thank you! I’m here because of the way you used your earthly possessions to share Christ’s love.”
2. Material blessings are given to us as a test to see how much responsibility we will be given in heaven. Scripture points out that we will receive rewards in eternity according to what we do on earth and that the degree of rewards will vary (Luke 16:11-12, Proverbs 24:11-12, Matthew 19:27-30, Luke 14:12-14, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
3. Possessions serve as a trademark to those around us that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Businesses spend billions of dollars promoting their trademark. What trademark do our friends and neighbors see when they look at us (and our stuff)? Hopefully, our possessions don’t control us.

The disciplined use of our possessions is not meant to be a burden. The Christian will find that proper stewardship leads to joy and satisfaction – contentment!

Some notes from God & Your Stuff by Dr. Wesley K. Willmer.

The views are those of Bruce Olmstead and not those of Summit Brokerage Services. Investments in securities do not offer a fix rate of return. Principal, yield and/or share price will fluctuate with changes in market conditions and, when sold or redeemed, you may receive more or less than originally invested.  No system or financial planning strategy can guarantee future results