Budgeting from the Bible
Did you know that the Bible talks about money a lot? Yes, it does. The Bible is not just a book about morality; it is a guidebook for life and how to live life well. I believe God created us and the word of God is his love letter to us through stories. These stories help us understand things all the way from creation to how to navigate life as his creation. If the Bible was a book that was meant just to read how to live a moral life, I don’t think there would be so many stories about sinners and how God loves and uses them for good. Honestly, none of us are perfect or moral, if we were there would be no need for Jesus. I believe that God sent his son to earth to live and die for all of our sins. We are saved by his grace through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible has the Old Testament which has stories that point to Jesus and the New Testament that tell about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. If we look at the Bible as a guidebook for life in both sections of it, you see stories that show how to live life well and how to run God’s Kingdom here on earth. Jesus also taught in parables, which are simple stories to teach a lesson. You can find lessons on how things should be done including: how to treat people, how to find happiness, and have good relationships. There is instruction on marriage, family, raising kids, fasting, eating healthy, creating and sustaining wealth and investing. There is so much more in there. I truly believe that the Bible is a gift from God to help us and to connect with him.
While the bible does talk about money a lot I don’t think I have found a passage that specifically talks about budgeting. It does however talk about being a good steward of the money you have. That my friends is where budgeting comes in. I know I have talked about it before, but I want to refresh your memory, a budget is a plan for your money and how you are going to have it work for you. Stewardship is taking good care of something or supervising, so if we apply that to our money and we are a good steward of it; we take good care of our money and supervise how it is working for us. That means you have to pay attention to how it is earned, spent, given, and invested. That is what the budget does, help you create a plan so that you can easily supervise the coming, going and growing of it.
Proverbs 21:20 says “the wise have wealth and luxury, but the fools spend whatever they get.” Ouch, that verse is a call out. I know there were multiple times when I was being a fool. I spent everything that came in and did not invest, give or save any. At the time I did not feel like I was being foolish. I remember thinking I was just trying to survive in my mid 20s. There were other times when I was in my teen years working and into my early 20s when it wasn’t survival mode it was party mode and yes, I was being a fool. It’s amazing what 10 years and a closer relationship with Jesus has done in my life. Proverbs 21:5-6 states “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. Wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.” I think these verses can be applied to budgeting, investing and your source of income. It is your responsibility to make sure your sources of income are honorable, your investments are wise and not a get rich quick scheme, and that you are paying attention with a good plan for how that money is going to be used.
In Luke 14:28-30 Jesus tells a story about knowing the cost of a project before starting and being able to afford it to completion. He states “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it'.” In this moment Jesus was actually using this story to paint a picture of the cost of following him as a disciple. Back then it was not common for people to take out loans, run up credit card bills, finance vehicles, and use other people’s money for things they could not afford. So, the people he was talking to understood that not having a budget and knowing the costs of projects would make you the laughingstock of the town.
These are just a few verses from the Bible that point to the need to be paying attention to your money and stewarding it well. A budget is a tool that can help you do that. There is so much other great wisdom and guidance in the word of the Lord. I pray that you would take time to study it, deepen your relationship with God and research some of the things I have talked about.
