Four Ways To Become Financially Healthy
As of 2021, the average Canadian owed $72,950 in debt, excluding mortgages. Credit cards, lines of credit, car loans, personal loans. And over a third of people took on consumer debt just to get through Christmas, adding an average of $1,180 to their balances for gifts they didn't need to go into debt for.
Most of us would say we have a money problem. But money isn't the problem. The problem is how we handle it. And thankfully, the Bible has a lot to say about that. There are more verses about money than there are about heaven and hell combined. Roughly 10% of Scripture, around 2,350 verses, addresses how we handle our finances and possessions. This is a big deal to God.
The most talked-about idea the Bible offers when it comes to finances isn't giving, saving, or debt specifically. It's stewardship: the job of taking care of something that belongs to someone else.
The premise is simple. Everything we have is God's. He is the source of all things. We are managers of what belongs to Him, not owners. Right from the beginning, God entrusted humanity with the care of His creation, including natural resources, relationships, talents, treasure, and time.
Jesus illustrated this in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. A man entrusts his servants with bags of gold before leaving on a trip, each according to their ability. Two servants doubled what they received. The third buried his in the ground. When the master returned, the faithful servants heard, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things" (Matthew 25:21, NIV). The one who buried his gold was rebuked.
Two things stand out here. First, God entrusts us with resources and expects us to do something with them, not let them sit idle. Second, God gives different amounts to different people according to their ability. Envying what someone else has is a dead end. The call is to steward well what you've been given.
Four Practices for Financial Health
If stewardship is the big idea, the Bible gives us practical ways to live it out.
Practice giving. Generosity is assumed of anyone who follows Jesus. In Matthew 6, Jesus begins a teaching on giving with the words "when you give," not "if you give." Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap" (NIV). Blessing follows generosity. It's a proven biblical principle. And in Malachi 3:10, God issues the only invitation in Scripture to test Him: bring the tithe, and see if He won't throw open the floodgates of heaven.
Practice self-control. Proverbs 25:28 says, "Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control" (NIV). Without self-control, you end up in trouble. A lot of people want something, want it now, and purchase without realizing the consequences of buying what they can't afford. Self-control is exemplified by a single word: no. We learn to say no for a little while so we can say yes for the rest of our lives.
Practice sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love more. You want the post-Christmas electronics sale, but what you want more is a debt-free start to the year. You want a bigger house, but what you want more is the freedom to be home with your kids. Our culture asks, "How much down and how much a month?" The better question is, "How much is the real cost over months and months of payments?" A $14,500 family trip put on a credit card at 18% interest, paid at the minimum, takes 40 years to pay off and costs over $100,000. Nobody would sign up for that knowingly, yet people do it all the time.
Practice planning. Jesus said, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?" (Luke 14:28, NIV). You can wander into debt, but you can't wander out of it. Getting out takes a plan. Start with an emergency fund so that unexpected expenses don't derail you. Then tackle your smallest debt first, throwing whatever extra you can find at it. Once it's paid off, roll that payment into the next debt. This snowball effect works, and each time something is paid off, the weight gets a little lighter.
The Key Is Contentment
All the practices in the world won't stick if one thing is missing from your heart. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24, NIV). He said this because He knew money would be a major competitor for our hearts.
Solomon, by most standards the richest man who ever lived, wrote: "Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 4:6, NIV). When is one handful better? When someone needs a hand up and you actually have a free hand to offer.
If you were given three months to live and someone asked you what really matters, you'd talk about your faith, your marriage, your kids, your closest relationships. Nobody would say the next car, the next TV, or the next countertop. Yet so much of our lives are spent pursuing and stressing over things that wouldn't even make the list.
Paul puts it plainly: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it" (1 Timothy 6:6-7, NIV). Godliness is living a life that reflects God. Contentment is an attitude of satisfaction and gratitude regardless of circumstances. Together, they produce peace, joy, and freedom, the exact opposite of what life feels like under the weight of financial stress.
Financial health isn't ultimately about spreadsheets and budgets. It's about the heart. When we steward well what God has given us, we move from bondage to freedom, free to give, free to live generously, and free to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."