Episode 1140: Lies We Believe About Money

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,140 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Ruth Gotain: I'm Ruth Gotain. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to improve consistently over time is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:30] Scott Maderer: the truth is understanding this lets you pivot from looking at money as the thing that we're after. And instead we begin to recognize that. Is simply a result of serving others of doing what we're called to do of living out our calling and an authentic way and of being content with what we have while still being driven to do more.

[00:00:57] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the [00:01:00] inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true call in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:21] Can impact the work

[00:01:23] and today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about eight lies that we believe about money. I also share the biggest lie about money and how that leads to stagnation. I share how understanding these lies will help you to get. As we talk about stewarding your treasures.

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[00:02:12] No, the truth is when it comes to money. There's a lot of mindsets and beliefs that we have, some of which we have way down deep inside, and we don't even really understand that we have them. And yet they really affect how we approach money, how we deal with it, our mindset and our behavior around it, and end up causing problems for us that ripple throughout our lives.

[00:02:38] I wanted to cover eight of those lies and then talk about the overarching big lie behind all of them and talk about how that doesn't help us. The first lie is this idea of you don't have enough. I think a lot of times we find ourselves saying if I had more money, if I had more stuff, if I had [00:03:00] more of this, I would be happy.

[00:03:02] I would give more. I would save. The interesting thing is when you find yourself saying that, and then you do actually get more money or stuff or whatever it is. Yeah. You may have momentary happiness, but it doesn't last very long. The Hebrews chapter 13 says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

[00:03:25] know, It's not money, that's the problem. It's not stuff. That's the problem. It's putting that love of money. First it's the attitude that we have around it. It's when we look to money to make us happy, or we look to money or stuff to make us content, we're making an idol out of that. The truth is what you have is enough now, does that mean that you shouldn't strive for more than does that mean that there shouldn't be growth?

[00:03:53] Not necessarily, but at the same time you can be content with what you have. And we'll talk more about that in a [00:04:00] later. The second lie is it's better to hold on to what you have, or you may miss out. This is this idea. We set up this false dichotomy. We can either have stuff or we can give, but we can't do.

[00:04:14] But the truth is that I've seen time and time again, when people open up their hearts and begin to give, then money comes back to us. Things come back to us gifts, come back to us, not always monetary, but always something that gives us more than what we had before. Again, Psalm one 12, good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their fears with justice.

[00:04:39] The idea is that we are blessed when we help other people. It's a generosity business, not a hold onto it or hoarding business that. The third lie related to the first. You'll be happier if you have more if I have more stuff, I'll be happier and temporarily that's [00:05:00] true to a certain level. That's true.

[00:05:02] But at the end of the day, There is a limit to that. Yes. If you are living well below the poverty line and struggling just to get food, that's going to affect your happiness. But at the same time, I've seen people who have more than enough money to the tune of making a million dollars or more a year that are miserable.

[00:05:27] The truth is there's not a direct connection between happy. And money. It's about looking to what happens in our heart and our mind first. And the money tends to come second, falling in love with money can make you where all you're doing is obsessing about the money that you have or don't have. And what's going to happen to that.

[00:05:51] And because of that, you end up stressed out and less happy, not more. I for the more money you have, the more valuable [00:06:00] you become. Our net worth is equal to our self-worth. And at first glance, again, we see that we see people who are worth more money and somehow, or another, they get treated better or different in some way.

[00:06:14] But the truth is we are all set aside to be who we are. If we are already blessed. And already given grace, we don't have to strive to be quote more valuable because we already have the ultimate value. So if you recognize that then the money no longer becomes what you're striving for, why five money gives you security.

[00:06:41] The truth is. Only the absolute can give you absolute security and money is never absolute. It can always be here today and gone tomorrow. And the minute that happens, if all of your worth and all of your security is tied up in what money you have, then if it goes away, [00:07:00] you're no longer secure where the reality is.

[00:07:03] If you put your security in God, then that never goes away. The sixth lie. We need debt to build wealth. You've heard me talk about using debt to build wealth before as something that the truth is I don't believe in it because the rich rules over the poor and the borrower becomes the lender's slave.

[00:07:23] The truth is debt is never talked about in a positive way. In any of the Bible, the seventh live, it's all yours and you deserve. Yeah, the idea is that what we have, isn't even ours in the first place. And it's not, we should give the 10% because that's what belongs to God. A hundred percent belongs to God, but we end up only giving a small portion.

[00:07:50] Sometimes, because that's what God calls for, but there are other times where God calls for more or even less than that. It's not [00:08:00] about the it's mine. And I deserve it. It's about it's God's and what can I do with it that blesses and honors him? And the L the eighth lie, Christian shouldn't have money, or Christians should be poor.

[00:08:14] This is always this idea that poor is holy and wealthy as evil, but that's a misunderstanding of what the Bible is telling us. It's not money itself. That's good or bad money is just a tool. But if we put money above God, then it's a problem. It's the love of. And the truth is that can be something that's a struggle because the underlying lie behind all of this is that.

[00:08:45] Money becomes our focus because we think money is what provides our worth money is what provides our security money is what provides all that we need. Instead of looking first to God for that security looking first to [00:09:00] God for what we need and therefore being content. When we have lots and being content, when we have little, the truth is understanding this lets you pivot from looking at money as.

[00:09:13] Thing that we're after. And instead we begin to recognize that money is simply a result of serving others of doing what we're called to do of living out our calling and an authentic way and of being content with what we have while still being driven to do more so that. We can do more of what God has called for us to do on this planet.

[00:09:41] And when you look at it that way, then it's a very different relationship that you have with money, and it allows you to grow while at the same time being content with what you have and where you are. Thanks for listening.

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