The Power of Giving

Now, how exactly does that work, especially if money has so much power over our lives? Money has power, but so does God’s Word, and so does giving.  In fact, giving has a very specific power— it has the power to break money’s control over us.

That seems counterintuitive, but it’s true. The late pastor Charles Stanley liked to say that we need to hold money with an open hand because if we close our fist around it, it takes control of our thinking and behavior.

Financial teacher and author Ron Blue says, “It’s not that my heart is where I put my treasure. It’s where I put my treasure … there is where my heart will go. The heart follows treasure, not the other way around. Jesus wants me to treasure Him and a relationship with Him and I can’t if money or mammon is my god.”

Jesus says a lot about money in the Gospels, most of it warning us about its power. A little further in Matthew 6, in verse 24, He says we must make a choice: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Note that Jesus doesn’t say that it’s difficult to serve God and money. He says it’s impossible to serve God and money. He’s saying you have to make a choice— God or money.

In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul tells us what happens when we make the wrong choice. He writes, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

If you doubt that’s the case, consider that loving money more than God is really idolatry. 

It’s no different than the Israelites worshiping a golden calf.

Now, to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with acquiring wealth, and acquiring more than you need. If the Lord didn’t allow that, we wouldn’t have anything to give. Money is not the root of evil. The LOVE OF MONEY is.  

That’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew 19:23 & 24, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

A bit of hyperbole there, perhaps, to make a point. If you love riches, it will be difficult to enter heaven because you’re choosing money over God. The only way to break the power that money has over you is to give generously to God’s Kingdom.

• What is an escrow account and how does it work? 
• How do you determine when to move assets into lower-risk investments? 
• Would it be wise to take money out of savings and purchase Treasury bills?