The Best Way to Get Wealth (Part 1)

Wait a minute - should a Christian desire to be wealthy?

Well, no, but: “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:18, ESV)

The Expanded Bible says “but remember the Lord your God! It is he who gives you the power to become rich, keeping the ·agreement [covenant; treaty] he promised to your ·ancestors [fathers], as it is today.

So God gives us the power to get wealth, or to become rich, but it is to be a by-product of seeking Him and His will. (Matthew 6:33; Psalm 37:5). He also tells us that we are not to go after hasty riches by using illegal methods (Proverbs 10:2), immoral methods (Proverbs 28:22) or chasing fantasies, like the lottery, or get-rich-quick schemes (Proverbs 12:11). And He wants us to use the riches and wealth for his glory, which I’ll cover in future posts.

Proverbs 13:11 covers these three sinful methods mentioned above in the beginning of the verse, but THEN, in the second part of the verse, He tells us that the best way to get wealth is…”LITTLE BY LITTLE”!:

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” (ESV)

One way to gather wealth little by little is to save. Some people brag about getting a discount and saving money on something, but I read once that someone said something like, “Okay, you said you saved money. But did you really SAVE it? Did you put that money in a savings account and earn interest on it, or did you just spend it on something else?”

What I’ve learned to do is to ask for a receipt for everything on which I save money, keep the receipts, open a savings account (I found a good one online that pays a real good interest rate - even our Lord didn’t have a problem with earning interest: see Matthew 25:27), and when I get income, “pay myself” the amounts that I saved by depositing the total into that account! It really adds up. It completely paid for a weekend hiatus that my wife and I took one weekend.

Okay, so we spent some of that “wealth”...on an experience together that both of us will have fond memories of. Is there anything wrong with that? (John 10:10)...but you can use it to build “real” wealth as well!

Next time: Steemit and “little by little”...Steem on!