Dwight Fletcher | Kingdom principles for money matters

I hope by now you’ve realised that if you want a change with your finances, it takes doing things differently. If you’re a believer, it means applying the principles of God’s Kingdom to the way you treat your money. Because money matters to God, we can trust that He will give us His best for our lives when we do things His way. So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to share four Kingdom principles to apply to your money matters to see transformation in your finances.

1. RECOGNISE THAT GOD IS YOUR SOURCE

As Jesus spoke in Matthew 6, the underlying thought was that everything you need is provided by God. God owns everything. Therefore, God is the source of all your supply. Your source is not your salary, the economy, savings or even your skills. If you are a believer, and therefore a citizen of God’s Kingdom, then your source and your security are in God.

The reason why this is important is you must put your security in something that can never be taken from you. If your security is found in something that can be taken from you, then you’re going to be insecure the rest of your life. You can lose your salary, your job, or your savings. You might not be able to lose your skills, but consider the way AI has already taken over many skill-based jobs. This is why you must put your security in something that cannot be taken from you – your relationship to God. God is the true source of your supply.

This is good news! It means you don’t need to worry about your source, strive to keep your source, or preoccupy all your thoughts with never losing your source. God is faithful and He will never leave you. He will always graciously supply.

Our role, therefore, is to learn to be content. Matthew 6:25 (NIV) says, “ Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”

Jesus is speaking here and He is highlighting the principle of contentment. Contentment can be defined as “…the state of being mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are.” The truth is this, if God is your supply and He is a Good Father, then what you have now is what you need to survive. Or put another way, what He has supplied is what you can manage. There can be a season of increase coming, but for today, what you have, God is pleased to supply. In today’s world, it is rare that we find anyone who is truly content. Many of us struggle with the desire for more but that’s a mindset from the kingdom of the world. When we get disgruntled, we are inadvertently saying that God is not good or doesn’t care about us.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we have to break any hold the love of money has in our lives. Contentment is one of the principles that breaks that hold. Hebrews 13:5 NIV states, “ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Contentment does not mean we cannot desire something or wish for a change. In fact, we can even work towards change in our lives while being satisfied with what we have in the present. It’s only when we can work with what we currently have that God can trust us with more. I pray that over the course of this week you will grow in your contentment. Then, join me next week as we discuss the next principle to advance financially.