God Wants to Make You Rich
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33
For you know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
Evil pursues sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repaid … a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Proverbs 13:21-22
The Riches are on God’s Terms
What if I told you that God really does want you to be rich? Would you believe it, or would you be skeptical? Most of us would love the opportunity to enjoy the treasures of this world especially if they were granted by God Almighty. That would mean we inherited an abundance and could rest assured that God would also guard those riches on our behalf. There’s just one catch, the riches are given by God and on God’s terms. Before you tune me out, please listen to what I have to share.
God really does want you to be rich, but you must understand there are important considerations. First, God alone defines the riches. His plans for riches in your life may be entirely different than those you are seeking. Secondly, with riches God assigns responsibility to those who seek His riches. Lastly, God sends His riches on His time not ours. For that reason, the seeker must patiently wait for God to fulfill His promise. Just to be clear, if we are to find God’s riches in life, we must seek them on God’s terms, seek to know God as a priority, and be patient in the process. Otherwise, you may forfeit God’s true blessing in your hot pursuit of earthly treasures. That’s the catch.
Now, make no mistake about it – God wants you to be rich and that is a fact. So, lets explore this process and discover God’s wonderful plan for riches. God wanted to make Abram rich, but Abram discovered there was a catch. God’s promise was to give him land and descendants without number. The land came and so did the descendants, but they came on God’s terms and in God’s time. When you think of the seed of Abraham today, His natural descendants number into the millions and yet it all started with a promise that God would make the man rich. Those riches consisted of an abundance of faith, overflowing blessings, and a plan that all the nations would be blessed through him. Those were God’s terms. By the way, God also gave to Abraham an abundance of silver, gold, and other possessions, but nothing could compare to the true riches of knowing God and walking with God. Abraham was a blessed man, but he discovered the riches on God’s terms.
Key Elements to God’s Plan for Riches
Think of riches from a practical perspective of God’s Kingdom. We cannot serve God effectively with empty hands. If it is our desire to do a great work for our Great God, that will require money, abilities, and certainly divine resources. So why doesn’t God just give us all these things automatically? Imagine placing a lot of riches into the hands someone immature or ill-trained. The resources would more than likely, be used ineffectively at best and may bring harm to the user. God in his wisdom, guides the believer through the process of obtaining His riches for His glory. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That describes the process, but it also provides a promise to the faithful seeker – and all these things shall be added unto you. So often, we would opt to go straight to all these things and avoid the part of seeking first God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness. Unfortunately, the principles of God’s Kingdom do not operate that way.
One recent TV commercial featured a young child who discovered a quick way to get rich through the internet. He yelled to his mother, “we’re rich, we’re rich” only to have his mother break the bad news that it was only a scam. There are no get-rich-quick methods that apply to God’s Kingdom. God does supply our needs and He does it abundantly, but the goal is not to be smothered with silver and gold, but to be surrounded by God’s Grace and Favor. That’s God’s Wealth Plan.
The seven elements of God’s Plan for Wealth are: Purpose, Priorities, Potential, Provisions, Power, Permanence, and Praise. Everything in God’s Kingdom starts with purpose. Why did God create it? What is the purpose for Kingdom Wealth? The late Dr. Myles Munroe said, “if you don’t know the purpose for a thing, you will abuse it.” The purpose for riches is to serve God’s Kingdom. If it does not serve God’s Kingdom, then it does not have value and cannot add value. Things without purpose are cast aside.
This brings us to another dimension of purpose, and that is how we define wealth. If we define wealth on our terms, they may not serve any real purpose and in the end will not have the backing of God’s Kingdom. God defines wealth in terms of righteousness, faith, love, and hope. While those may be interpreted as spiritual virtues, they are much more than that. The things that were created are based on God’s spiritual virtues and strength so that the things created were not made by the things that are seen but the things that are unseen. That is purpose. God has a reason behind everything that is made.
The second element of God’s Plan for wealth is Priority seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Obviously, there are some things more important and more critical to the Kingdom’s cause than others. There are vessels for honor and some for dishonor. The same is true for wealth. The Bible says that wisdom is of more value than the finest gold or choicest silver. Our culture has persuaded us to think the opposite. Yet, if a man has an abundance of gold and silver but does not understand priorities, he will certainly squander wealth on frivolous things. Priority asks the great question of what is important to God. If it is important to God, then it is my priority to live by.
The third element of God’s Plan for wealth is Potential. What will the riches do when they are released or put to use. As you recall from the parable of the talents that one of the grantees did not know his potential nor the potential of his riches. While the other two invested wisely and reported a great yield on their talent, the one with the one talent reported nothing. He disregarded the potential of God’s Kingdom wealth and suffered eternally as a result of his slothful misuse of God’s resources.
The fourth element of God’s Wealth Plan is Provisions. Purpose answers the question of what it’s for. Priority answers the question of why it is important. Potential answers the question of what it can do. Provision answers the question of where we obtain Kingdom Riches. Our Old Testament patriarch Abraham helps us understand the principle of Provision. When he returned from the victorious battle as recorded in Genesis 14, the king of Sodom wanted to reward Abram with the bounty and spoils of the war. Abraham refused and said, “I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God … I will not take a shoelace or anything else, lest you should say I made Abram rich.” Abram was not being super spiritual; he was recognizing where his provisions came from. If they came from man, then man would take credit. But if the provisions came from God, then God would get all the glory. Later, when Abraham was called to sacrifice his son Isaac, he would discover that God would provide for His sacrifice. God is Jehovah Jireh.
The fifth principle of God’s Wealth plan is Power. This principle answers the question of authority over riches. In my lifetime, I have witnessed people with great possessions, and the end result was that their possessions owned them. Such was the case of the parable of the man with the barns. His possessions owned him to the point that he was rich but not rich toward God. There is a danger of having money and not knowing what to do with it. The greater danger is to have money and become the slave of possessions. The words of Agur provides great advice in our prayer for riches from Proverbs 30:8. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me … lest I be full and deny Thee, and say “Who is God?” Or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain. Whatever God gives, we want riches that will serve and not riches to make us slaves.
The sixth principle of God’s Wealth plan is Permanence. This principle answers the question of how long the riches will last. Certainly, the most enduring riches are those that are not of this world but are the Riches of God’s Kingdom. In your seeking for Kingdom wealth do not seek more of earthly things and leave out the Heavenly things. Why? The earthly things will not last. Build your hope on things eternal.
The seventh principle of God’s Wealth plan is Praise. You probably question the relevance of this principle, yet it is the foundation for God’s Wealth Plan. It answers the question of who gets the glory for the riches given in your life. Let me first warn you as well as remind myself that God is a Jealous God. He will not give His Glory to another. He will certainly share His Glory with those who seek Him, but no one will be permitted to take credit and praise for the riches that God gives. This is twofold. Whenever God blesses us with riches, we have an obligation and a privilege to Praise Him. Second, the Praise is a way of examining what is in our heart. We should get more joy out of realizing that God has blessed us. The gift is good, but the One who gave the gift is worthy of our praise. When we reach that level of experiencing God’s riches, we have reached the place described by Margaret Bailey as “living with a twinkle in the eye.” To know that God cared so much that He gave so much is truly incredible.
May you experience God’s riches in such a way that you discover the greatest treasure you will ever possess is to be loved by God and have the riches of love in you to love God in return. Those are the true riches, and they are on God’s terms.