Daily Hope Devotional

God wants us to use some money to take the Good News around the world. We invest in eternity every time we use money to bring others to Jesus. When you save to go on a mission trip, that’s an investment in God’s Global Fund. When you help others go on a mission trip, that’s an investment in God’s Global Fund. This also includes using your money to encourage your friends to trust in Jesus. Luke 16:9 says,  “Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home”  (NLT, second edition). Imagine when you die and get to Heaven, your friends will welcome you there and say, “Thank you for investing in me. I’m in Heaven because of you! I’m not your friend for life; I’m your friend for eternity. I’m in Heaven because you cared enough. You bought me a Bible. You bought me a ticket for an event. You gave me a Christian book.” Others ...

God wants you to use some of your money to help people in need. God didn’t put us on this earth to live for ourselves. He blesses us so that we can bless others. This is all part of God making us more like Himself. God is generous. Everything we have in life is because of God’s generosity. We wouldn’t have anything — we wouldn’t even be alive — if it weren’t for God’s generosity. And God wants us to be generous like He is. Imagine if your father was a billionaire, and he wanted to share his fortune with you. But he knew you needed to be tested first to see if you would be able to handle it. So he gives you a set amount of money and says, “I want you to learn to live on less so you can use the rest to help others. I’m going to be watching you to see how you manage and distribute my resources. If you do well, I’m going to will it all to you.” How would you use that money? God particularly wants us to be generous with the poor. Throughout the Bible, God tells us...

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   (Matthew   6:21   NIV) You are going to enjoy forever what you invest in Heaven, and you invest in Heaven every time you use money for good. Yesterday we talked about investing in eternity by using your money to grow your character, encourage fellowship in the Body of Christ, and serve others in need. There are two more funds that you should invest in so that you can yield eternal dividends in Heaven. The fourth of God’s investment funds is the Global Fund.   This is when you use your money to share the Good News and bring people to Jesus. Luke 16:9 says, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (NIV). A lot of people have no idea what this verse means. Is it saying that you can buy friends? Not at all. It means that God wants you to invest in things that help get people into Heaven so...

“They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.”   (1 Timothy 6:18b-19 NLT) The Bible says in 1 Timothy  6:18-19 ,  “They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life”   (NLT). You are going to enjoy forever what you invest in Heaven, and you invest in Heaven every time you use money for good. So how do you do that? Any financial advisor will tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket. You put your money into different funds for a balanced portfolio. Did you know that God has given different funds that you can invest in for eternity? We’...

If you want to be financially strong, you need to start writing down what you spend until you know where it’s all going. This is the principle of accounting. You’ve got to keep track of your finances! Proverbs 21:5 says,  “Plan carefully and you will have plenty”  (TEV). If you don’t have plenty, you’re not planning carefully. You don’t have anybody to blame but yourself. You may say, “But I had this emergency!” Everybody has emergencies. Everybody gets laid off or has unexpected expenses. The difference between the people who make it through and those who don’t is how they planned for those emergencies. If you don’t expect them, of course you’re going to be devastated by them. Have you ever made it to the end of the month and wondered, “Where did all my money go?” Ignorance of your financial condition plus easy credit equals disaster. You’ve heard that phrase, “Money talks.” It does not. It just walks away quietly, and it doesn’t tell you where it’s going. So...

“ The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.”   (Deuteronomy 14:23b TLB) Whatever you want God to bless, you have to put Him first in. So if you want God to bless your finances, you have to put Him first in your money. This is the principle of tithing: You give the first 10 percent of your income back to God. There are four verses that explain the promise, the purpose, the place, and the day for tithing. First, Proverbs 3:9-10 gives the promise about tithing:  “Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and He will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines”   (TLB). God says that if you honor Him with the first part of your income, He will bless you financially. Kay and I decided 36 years ago that if we’re going to be in debt to anybody, we’re not going to be in debt to God. God g...

“Remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”   (Deuteronomy 8:18a NIV) The Bible says in Deuteronomy  8:18 ,  “Remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (NIV). Every economy, including America, has wealth makers and wealth takers. They have wealth producers and wealth users, wealth contributors and wealth consumers. The economy gets turned upside down when there are more consumers than there are contributors. That’s what’s happening right now in America. We have more consumers than we have contributors. Yet God designed us to create wealth, to produce wealth; He designed us to be productive people. God wants you to be productive, and His plan for your life includes wealth creation — not wealth redistribution. Let me explain the difference between capitalism, communism, and Christianity. Capitalism says, “What’s m...

The time to start planting is now. I talk to people all the time who say, “One of these days, I’m going to …” They’re going to serve more one of these days. Or when they retire. Or when they get a raise. They’re going to increase their giving one of these days. “One of these days” is none of these days. You don’t wait for things to get better; you start planting now. Why? Because the sooner you plant, the longer you’re going to enjoy the harvest in your life. But the harvest is not always going to come in your time. There’s always a delay between sowing and reaping. You plant in one season, and you harvest in another. You have to be patient and not give up! This is one of the principles that the Kingdom of God operates on. Mark 4:26-29 says,  “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed spouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain —...

“When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them.  Always be eager to practice hospitality.”   (Romans   12:13 NLT, second edition) God wants us to use some of our money to encourage fellowship, to show love to other believers, and to build relationships. Any time I give my money to God, it draws me closer to God. Any time I give my money to another person, it draws me closer to that person. When I give money to people in my small group or I invest in my small group, I grow closer to those in the group. Any time I go out and buy a nice card and write a note of encouragement, I’ve just invested in God’s Mutual Fund. When another believer is discouraged and needs somebody to talk to and I buy him or her lunch, I’ve just invested in God’s Mutual Fund. The Bible says,  “When you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible”  (3 John 1:5 MSG). When we invest our money in ...

“Truth, wisdom, learning, and good sense —  these are worth paying for, but too valuable for you to sell.”  (Proverbs   23:23   TEV) We like to spend money on comfort, but the Bible teaches that it is wiser to invest in character. God wants us to take some of our money and invest it in ourselves — in personal and spiritual improvement. The Bible says, “Grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”  (2 Peter 3:18a TLB). The Bible also says,  “Buy truth — don’t sell it for love or money; buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight”  (Proverbs  23:23  MSG). God wants you to develop skills and educate yourself so that you can become the kind of person he has shaped you to be. Any time we use our money to buy a Christian book or a CD that helps us grow, we’ve invested in God’s Growth Fund. Whenever we use our money to take a class or learn something that makes us more of who or w...

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”   (2 Corinthians 9:6-7 NIV) If a farmer goes out with a trailer load of beans, and he plants them in a barren field, what fruit does he expect to bear? Watermelon? Cucumbers? No. He’s going to get beans. He doesn’t doubt it. He doesn’t question it. Because whatever you plant is what you’re going to get back. This is the law of reproduction, and it applies to every single area of your life — especially in your finances. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7,  “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compul...

“Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”   (Galatians 6:9 NLT) The Bible tells us that there are seasons in life. It says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that  “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”   (NIV). Between the then and the now or the now and the what’s coming next, there is always a delay. This is irritating for most people, to make a deposit or an investment or a plan and not have it instantly come to fruition. Fruit ripens slowly. Would you rather eat a vine-ripened tomato or one that has been picked green and then gassed to turn it red? There’s no comparison between a vine-ripened tomato, which was allowed to grow slowly, and a tomato that was picked prematurely. If you pick too soon, you miss the flavor. In money management, you always reap in a different season than you sow. And by the way, not all fruit ripens at the same...

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”   (John 12:24b NIV) What does a farmer do when he’s got a barren field that’s producing no income? He doesn’t complain about it. He doesn’t even pray about it! He just goes out and starts planting some seed, because nothing is going to happen until he plants the seed. He can pray all he wants, but it’s not going to produce fruit. He’s got to plant some seed. Some of you think you’re waiting on God. You think you’re waiting on God for that job. You think you’re waiting on God for a husband. You think you’re waiting on God for the windfall. God says, “You think you’re waiting on Me? I’m waiting on you! I’m waiting for you to plant a seed.” Everything in life starts as a seed — a relationship, a marriage, a business, a church. And nothing happens until the seed is planted. Why does God require us to...