When discussing God and money, the best reference is to head for the Bible itself.

But why read a Bible looking for clues about how to get and keep money when it’s not there?

The scripture that we love to repeat most is “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Not money, but the LOVE of money. Many love money but money does not love us.

It often seems to run from us like dust blowing in the wind.

Nowadays, people often imply “Ye shall only know God by a science book,” and if you can’t prove it in a science book, it doesn’t exist. Well, the Bible is a science book, a history book, a book of poetry and songs; and a geographical and literary wonder in and of itself.

The one thing it is not is an economic or financial plan guidebook. You can twist those scriptures any which way you please, but you will not find in its pages or words ways to get money or ways to keep it. “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s…”

For those who believe you have to back up everything with “chapter and verse,” here’s the real deal on money and the gospel of the One and Only Messiah, and Christ Our Lord & Savior contained therein: There is not one single shred of evidence in the Bible that wealth is the divine favor of God.

Certain men and women of old were divinely and abundantly blessed of God with material substance, as He saw fit, but most -the MAJORITY- of the people spoken of in the Bible were poor or of meager means, and that includes the Son of Mother Mary and divine-born son of Joseph the Carpenter Himself.

One can never ever measure a man’s faith or level of faith, nor where he stands with the Lord God Most High by the amount of material wealth or prosperity that he does or does not have. — Mark 10:25

Ecclesiastes 11:6 states “Sow and give, for you have no gauge with which to tell whether or not there will be prosperity in the long run; or whether or not sowing and giving alike will be good.”

Some very non-divine and ungodly people bear remarkable amounts of wealth, and it was so even during historical Bible times. If wealth was a measure of God’s divine favor, then God divinely favors some very evil and despicable people and cares as much or more about them than He does the good ones who obey His Word.

Top off the tank with this in mind: Everybody isn’t going to be rich, no matter how much they pray, tithe, “speak it into existence,” or pour libations into it. That is not negative, or speaking or being negative, those are simple solid ice cold sobering clear-eyed realist facts.

Wealth is gotten and obtained in some very limited ways … by gifting, cashing an insurance policy, marrying it, inheriting it, earning it by some means, theft and graft (illegal or immoral means), savings; chancing on wholesale, garage, or community investments, and/or gambling and winning your placed bet (i.e., ‘luck of the draw’), and/or through settling and winning large-dollar lawsuits. That’s it. Reality bites, but that’s all there is and there is no more.

Wealth is not absorbed by osmosis, nor by ‘hanging out’ and rubbing shoulders with rich people. Money does not grow on trees nor does it rain out of the sky; and even if it did, by some accounts it would be counterfeit simply because the only acceptable currency in the USA is made in the US Mint. Material wealth is not proof of God’s divine favor, and some very evil people are richer than most Godly people ever will be as long as they live.

However, God did bless -as He saw fit- certain men and women with great measures of wealth; men such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Kings David and Solomon, Job, Nebuchadnezzar and many more … AS HE SAW FIT.

No one had a guarantee of material wealth then, no one has that guarantee now. The Savior said “The poor ye shall have with ye always,” or words to that effect in the Aramaic language.

Let’s be honest about poverty, without it no one is rich, and poverty is man-made and caused by unmitigated unwarranted selfish greed. Even the most faithful man of all men can be subjected to a world in which greed can keep him in want and lack of material things. But then again, God never gave anyone permission to sell His land, His water, His vegetation, or any of His earthly goods and creations … and those who sell it did not pay Him for it, nor did He charge them for the use of it; however, we get what we choose to accept from others.

Too many people have taken God’s divinity and His Holy Spirit and His resources and used them like a slot machine in Vegas or like a roll of the die in a game of street craps; and even corporations exist only on pyramid schemes and scams.

The best advice one can take about wealth is “Prepare yourself. Make a way as if the wealth will come. It may. It may not. But be ready regardless.”

That’s all the faith you or anyone else needs as far as getting and keeping wealth is concerned; and it never hurts to have faith even if that faith is no bigger than a mustard seed and there is no indication that prosperity is at hand.

One never knows. —

Proper position. Preparation. Expectation.

Material wealth is not wrong to have; but no one is required to have to have material wealth in order to be in God’s divine favor. Divine favor is not FOR SALE.

Cast your bread upon the waters….