Estimated reading time: 6 Minutes.

The book of Proverbs teaches us a lot about material possessions and teaches us about the stewardship that we must exercise over the goods that God has entrusted to us.
We are going to talk about the ethical life of the Christian. God is the source of everything we have, God made you in his image and likeness, and everything he has given you comes from him.
The Bible says in Psalms 24: “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it, the world and those who dwell in it”, so everything is God’s.

1) The Word tells us that wisdom is better than gold, for what?, for life, for daily living; so we must give God the first and the best.

As life goes by, values change and suddenly what we previously considered of great value is actually not as valuable as we thought; we realized it and now we see that we should not worry so much about something, if my health or life itself is at risk.
God knows that we have problems managing material things and if we let ourselves be governed by them, the result will not be what we expect or long for and ultimately what God wants for us; hence the importance of this teaching that tells us that acquiring intelligence is worth more than money.
At school they teach us many things, among which are mathematics, language and in general things that will be useful to us in life; but there are no schools where wisdom is taught. Most schools only give us information but wisdom is much more than information, wisdom comes from God and it will lead you to make good decisions that will bless your life and those around you.
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Many times we do things our way and it doesn’t work out for us and that’s when we say: “take it sir, I’ll give it to you because it didn’t work out for me”.
The Bible teaches us to trust God. It shouldn’t matter how much money we can make in this world if we can’t take it with us when we die. What we should care about is what God has promised to give us when we are with him in heaven. What is the goal of life if what we work the most for is going to stay? The Proverbs teaches us that we have to have a balanced balance between material things and spiritual things. Wisdom is something spiritual and you cannot have it if you are not spiritual because wisdom comes from God.
When we accumulate wealth and die, we still have to give an account of it. Here on earth every year we render accounts of our income, otherwise we will be obliged to pay taxes; which helps us to think that working 12 or 14 hours is not bad, it is good, but it is necessary to put into balance and perspective what God wants for our lives.

2) Being wise with money means valuing hard work

The Bible tells us about hard work, and about laziness in Proverbs it tells us that the ant is an example because it prepares and how does it prepare? Strongly.

We have to teach our children to be hard workers and teach them that things must be earned, you should not give them everything, the child must know that things cost. Even if you have money saved and can give it to him; make him earn it so he learns that things are not going to rain down on him from the sky. There is wisdom there, you raise him intelligently because that child will later know how to get out of trouble because he has been taught.
Teach him to make his bed, pick up his clothes, so that when he gets married he won’t have problems and won’t be a messy man.
We are created in the image of God and part of being in his image is that we are creative because God is a creator God; therefore you have the ability to create that you may not have discovered yet but it is there. God has given all of us the ability to be creative. No matter what you do when we work we reflect the divine nature of God wherever we are.

3) Work dignifies, riches are not only for us but to share.

The Lord teaches us that we should not be like the hoe only for ourselves, but that we distribute what we have and when we are generous we will be prosperous, he says his word.
Not only do you have to give out of necessity, but when you love a person, you seek to share what you have with them.
When we give to others what God has given us, we are putting this word into practice and making it alive.
Our nature is to be accumulators, it is hard for us to give but Proverbs teaches us to share.
The ability we have to share our money is the measure of wisdom we have already accumulated. If at the moment of offering or tithing you feel that it is difficult for you to do so, because you think that by doing so you will run out of what you need to eat, etc., ask God to remove greed from your heart, because God always gives us enough. If you are not managing what God gives you wisely, that is another matter that indicates that it is necessary to learn to manage money. Now, when one is up to his neck in debt, it is not that he does not want to give, it is that he simply cannot give; because those chains are well tied.
Let us note the following: if we are employees we want to receive a good salary as compensation for our work, but if we are employers we do not want to pay our employees more; and therein lies the problem. As employers we must ask God for wisdom to dignify our employees so that they are happy for the work they do.
Instead of accumulating wealth, share it ethically.
The scoop is the first thing that comes out of the harvest, and the best, greed is being stingy. Greed is wanting to have more and not wanting to spend a single penny. Proverbs tells us how to manage money so that it is not money that manages us; since it is God who provides it for his glory.
A wise approach teaches us to put God first in our financial lives.

4) First fruits versus greed – honor with your goods

We honor God first, not last. Normally everyone begins to take out first for the expenses of the house, food, studies, etc, and lastly for the Lord, if there is something left, we give it to God, when it should be the opposite, the first thing we should set aside is what we are going to give to God, and then dispose of what is required for everything else.
God honors those who honor him. He doesn’t keep anything and we will never win God in generosity. The result of your being generous has a tremendous impact on the kingdom.
Scoop biblically means the first yield of the harvest, God still deserves our first fruits and offerings, he has not changed, times change, ages change, but the principles are eternal.
Our position and money come from God, therefore we owe everything to him.

Sincerely,
Pastor Guillermo Ayala

• Proverbs 16:16
• Psalm 24
• Proverbs 11:4
• Proverbs 6:6-8
• Proverbs 11:24-25
• Proverb 3:9-10