In many of our churches today, our leaders are teaching how we can become rich by practicing various principles in the Bible. They will teach if you give 10% to the church you will be blessed financially many times over, as if God was the spiritual version of a Wall Street executive. However, you need to be very careful when you hear these things, because they are false teachings to the maximum degree. There is no financial blue print in the Bible on how to obtain possessions, regardless of what some will say. However, God is like the perfect parent to us just as we strive to be good parents to our children. He desires to give us great blessings and even earthly comforts because He dearly loves us, just as we want to give to our own children. However, as we well know, always giving our children everything they want is not always the best for them. Just like our children, sometimes the more we have, the more we want and God knows best when to bless us.

The Bible is the foundation of all Christian faith and is full of examples of God bestowing great riches and blessings on His people. He does not want us to live in poverty, but He does want us to become more like Christ as we mature in faith. Greed and the desires for earthly possessions can very easily distract us from what God wants us to strive for. God knows our intentions as we tithe or give to others and He knows if it is done out of love or if we are just looking for a return on our investment.

We must always be on guard that the desire to live comfortably does not cross the line to greed, as it very easily can. It all comes down to where our desires are and where we put our efforts. Obviously many very good people work hard and become successful, but how they conduct business determines what their status is in God’s eyes. A person who is greedy or whose primary focus is on making money will not care how their actions affect those around them. They feel like their own importance trumps all others and will always make decisions based on their own desire to gain more. It all comes down to our attitude and the desires of our heart.

As stated above, money or possessions in itself is not bad and can often be a reward from God. Remember, God wants to reward us and give us blessings. These blessing may often be in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and self-control which we are told are the fruits of the Spirit, but it can also be in form of earthly comforts. It can also be a test from the Lord to see how we handle ourselves once earthly riches are bestowed upon us. When money and greed become the focus of the choices we make on a daily basis, that is when it becomes a sin. Greed and love of money is listed many times in the Bible as something the Lord calls sin. If the Lord has blessed you with earthly blessings, be thankful and understand it is from the Lord, even though you may have worked very hard. It comes down to your attitude and the focus of your life whether it is on love, humility and service to others or is it based on greed and the love of money.