Fear Keeps You from God’s Financial Blessing
By Rick Warren
“Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away”(Matthew 25:28-29 NLT).
What keeps us from investing our lives? What keeps us from moving to financial freedom? I’ll tell you what it is: fear.
In the Bible you can find financial principles that God guarantees. God promises that if you do them, you will be blessed. But they require faith, and that scares a lot of people. They are afraid of doing it God’s way.
Many kinds of fears can hold you back. One of them is self-doubt. You’ve failed in the past, so you’re never going to try again. But just because you fail doesn’t mean you give up. Everybody fails. It’s the only way you learn what works! God uses ordinary people who just keep on going instead of giving up.
There were two disciples who denied Jesus before his Crucifixion: Judas and Peter. They committed the same sin, but the difference was the way each reacted to his failure. Judas had a pity party, got depressed, and took his life.
Peter, however, realized what he did was wrong, so he prayed and repented and asked God for forgiveness. Then Jesus chose Peter to preach on Pentecost, and 3,000 people were saved the first day. Jesus chose to build the church on the biggest failure in the bunch.
What a God! He didn’t choose the superstar. He chose the guy who had blown it the worst.
You may have really messed up financially in the past. But it doesn’t matter where you’ve been. What matters is the direction your feet are going right now.
In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, a rich man entrusted his money to his servants before he left for a long trip. When he returned, he asked for an account from the servants. Of the three, two of them doubled the master’s money, but the third was afraid and hid his portion instead of working and investing it. His fear disappointed and angered his master, who said, “Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver”(Matthew 25:28 NLT). The master took away everything the servant had been given.
Fear often emerges when we try to do things God’s way. Satan will try to get you to ignore God’s principles for money management by making you afraid of failure or making you doubt your ability to be a good steward of God’s money.
But if you’re going to be successful in life, you must move against your fears. You have to do the very thing that you fear the most!
When you do move forward in faith and follow God’s guidelines for financial peace, you will experience God’s blessing and even more resources and responsibility.
“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away”(Matthew 25:29 NLT).
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Financial Fitness Study Kit
Let God lead you into financial freedom!
I want to help you enjoy what God has given you right now by helping you build important financial principles into your life.
God gives us important advice about how to give, save, invest, and spend. And these are the principles Pastor Rick Warren shares in his Financial Fitness study kit.
We want to send you the Financial Fitness DVD Study and workbook to thank you for your gift today to help reach more people with the hope of Jesus Christ.
In this 5-session video study Pastor Rick will help you…
• Understand and apply God’s advice about your money.
• Do more with your money than you ever thought possible.
• Feel greater peace through financial freedom.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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