Poverty and Wealth – Curse or blessing? (Pr13)

Starting what he hopes to be a long life career in financial advising, my son's Christmas request was for books on financial advising. Which books, I asked? Do you have a list? Just find the bestsellers Mom. So after purchasing Amazon's 7 top selling books for financial advising, I found one was missing. The one with God's view on accumulated wealth. What does the Bible really say about money? Drawing a horizontal line, I found lots on the left side of the line (keep nothing, be content where you are, remember how hard it is for rich men to enter heaven) and even more on the right (wealth is a sign of God's blessing on one's life; no wealth? Look inside to see why you are missing God's blessing, all variously named versions of the same old prosperity gospel). I failed to find something in the middle, something I thought would be a balance. Finding one book I thought almost met my goals, I was disappointed to discover the writer had been arrested (though not yet determined guilty) for fraud related charges. So I finally told my son this particular book was not one I could give him yet, but we would have to write it. My gift would be that we meet monthly for lunch to study God's view on money, with the goal thru that study and discussion to produce the content for that book not yet written.

 

Beginning this study on Proverbs, it was clear that poverty and wealth were underlying themes throughout the book but I wasn't sure where they fit in what I believed to be the pillars of wisdom. Neither convinced that poverty was a virtue nor that wealth was a sign of God's blessing, I didn't find ideas for the poor and rich founded only on fear of the Lord. While knowledge is an important part of becoming wealthy, I know plenty of brilliant people who are poor. Clearly distinctions between poor and rich are far deeper than the desire of the heart alone. Speak the word and you will have it ranked just too close to the fallacies of prosperity gospel in my thinking, looking for wealth seemed too close to the 10^th commandment against coveting, listening to other's experiences about poverty and wealth required too much discernment to know whether or not one was listening to the right people. I did know that inherited wisdom is very closely connected to one's economic stated in life, as the majority of people build their minimums for acceptable living as well as expectations out of those subconscious habits formed during childhood. But I knew enough people who had defied those odds in both directions, for good and bad reasons as well, to know that while upbringing is a powerful influencer of one's economic status in life, it is far from the only thing.

 

With many references to poverty and wealth seemingly connected to action, however, I began to wonder how this fit in the category of hands and feet. Where does one go to become wealthy? What does one do with the wealth once it is earned or received? While the other pillars all seemed to be ideas that could reinforce one's desire to be wealthy or willingness to be poor, without action that both seeks to earn as well as makes conscious decisions about giving, one is not likely to either develop or maintain accumulated wealth.

 

Wealth and poverty. Neither God's blessing nor curse, but a choice, a habit, an expectation. One can multiply the value of ether, whether by viewing God as the source of all blessing or searching to be content with what one has. That does not negate the choice in the matter. While there are still verses to be reconciled such as Proverbs13:21 that "misfortune pursues the sinner but prosperity is the reward of the righteous" (perhaps a word study on prosperity will give insight into this often misused thesis) I began to recognize that poverty and wealth are a choice. That choice must result in action. Whether it's action to learn how to live on little or earn more, the action itself is not the godly or sinful thing. The attitudes towards others, the personal desires that determine why one earns and how the wealth is used, the humility that recognizes that all ultimately comes from God, those things determine right thinking about wealth. And more.

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