Resources by Topic: Money and Giving

Any lifestyle that doesn’t align with God’s priorities and won’t hold up after death is not a good one—no matter how glamorous or appealing or sensible it seems at the time.

Grasping God’s ownership of everything is the foundation of a biblical theology of money. Faithful money-managing stewards act in the owner’s interests, regularly consulting Him to understand and implement His investment priorities.

Your question about whether Christians should donate to political campaigns is an interesting one. I don’t think there’s a clear “yes” or “no” answer, as this seems to come down to wisdom and asking the Lord for direction.

The hosts of the Generous Business Owner podcast talk with Randy Alcorn about his life, exploring his walk with Christ. They discuss the role giving has played in Randy’s faith, as well as the importance of giving for all believers. 

Deep down, we all know we can spend every last cent on ourselves and still end up miserable. What Jesus calls us to do is far more radical and satisfying: love others by giving away our money and time. That sounds like loss, not gain, right? Yet in God’s economy, that’s exactly how we expand and enhance our own lives.

EPM does believe God loves cheerful givers (2 Corinthians 9:7) and does provide for givers so that we can be generous and glorify Him (2 Corinthians 9:8, 11). However, we want to be careful not to encourage anyone to believe that giving in any way obligates God to bless us financially with a certain amount or lifestyle in return. 

As is the case with fire, so it is with money: the greater a thing’s potential for good when used rightly, the greater its potential for harm when used wrongly. And money has great potential.

Randy spoke to a gathering of illumiNations partners (Bible translation and resource partners working together to eradicate Bible poverty in this generation). He shared about the gift of generous giving, as well as Revelation 5:9 and the hope of God’s Word reaching people of every tribe and language and nation.

Despite both personal experiences and studies indicating money alone doesn’t bring the good life, countless people think and live and make choices as if it does.

Paul made it clear that it’s possible to give sacrificially without being motivated by love: “If I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3, CSB). That means it’s not just generosity that’s the good life; it’s generosity that flows out of love.

In this video clip from an event Randy Alcorn and George Verwer did together in 2013, George shares about needs around the world, and passionately implores God’s people to get a vision for giving to get the gospel to the unreached.

In this clip Randy explains to Greg Laurie why he invites kids to have their parents take them on an excursion to the junk yard? He answers: Why does investing in eternity matter? Why should Christians be generous in this life?

Proverbs 13:11 warns, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” This refers to having the foresight to set aside some savings. Having reasonable savings can be an attempt to avoid having too little, but as with the rich man in Luke 12, putting too much into savings will make it into our god.

In Matthew 6, Jesus says there is only one safe place to invest, and that is in the Kingdom of God. He says, in essence, “You can't take it with you,” but he adds a life-changing corollary: “but you can send it on ahead.”