Read Proverbs 30
Everything we have belongs to the Lord. That single conviction changes how we save, spend, invest, and enjoy what is in our hands. Invariably, I often look at money as a way to build my own private kingdom. But in truth, it’s a gift entrusted to me by a generous King whose kingdom is not of this world.
Most of us don't talk about money at church. I get it. Many of us grew up in churches where every conversation about giving felt like a sales pitch. Others never heard the subject raised at all, as if faith and finances lived in separate rooms. Either way, we learned to keep our wallets out of our discipleship.
But Scripture won't let us do that. Proverbs 30 records the prayer of a man named Agur, who asks God for something unusual: give me neither poverty nor riches. He fears that too much will make him forget God, and too little will tempt him to steal and dishonor God's name. So he asks only for the bread he needs today.
Agur's prayer exposes where our trust actually rests. In Neither Poverty nor Riches, Craig Blomberg argues that God's people are called to trust God himself, not the resources he has given them or the resources they wish he had given them. That second category is worth pausing on. Our anxieties about money are often less about what we have and more about what we wish we had.
Contentment is ABOUT SURRENDER, not OPTIMIZATION
The word Proverbs 30 points us toward is contentment. Now, contentment isn’t the absence of desire. And it’s not resignation either. Being content is a settled trust that God is enough, and that he will give what we need when we need it.
We live in a city that daily convinces us that contentment is what happens at the next raise, the bigger apartment, or the paid-off loan. But the finish line of self-optimization keeps moving. Agur knew that wealth can quietly crowd God out of our hearts, and that poverty can press us toward desperation. Contentment is learned in both places by keeping our eyes on the Giver rather than the gifts.
The cross brings death and life
We can't manufacture this kind of trust by willpower. It comes from Jesus. It’s part of his good news. You see, on the cross, Jesus puts to death our grasping, our fear of scarcity, and our need to secure our own future. When we behold his death we find the end of what this life can offer. In his resurrection, Jesus brings to life in the form of a new kind of person: one who can hold possessions with an open hand because their life is "hidden with Christ in God."
So, if God didn’t spare his own Son, he won’t withhold from you and me. That’s the ground of contentment. Everything we own is his, and he is ours.
For reflection
What does it look like, practically, to trust God rather than your money and resources?
What has your experience been with the way churches teach and talk about money?
Are you content right now? Why or why not?
What does Jesus' death and resurrection put to death in you when it comes to money? What does he bring to life?
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Written by Jason C. Helveston
Further reading: Neither Poverty nor Riches, Craig Blomberg
