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PROGRAM D-8045

I’ve been sharing five lessons for living which are found in Proverbs 3. If you’ve missed any of these lessons, you’ll find them on our website at www.christianworkingwoman.org. Here is the fifth lesson for living, from verses 9 and 10:

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10)

This one gets kind of close to home because it talks about money, and if anything is close to our hearts, it’s our money—right? Please believe me when I tell you that your avenue to financial security begins with your willingness to make this lesson a part of your life!

What is this lesson? It is to give God the first part of your money. You may be thinking, But I’m not wealthy and I barely have enough now to make ends meet! I understand that feeling, but this lesson has nothing to do with whether you have lots of money or not. It simply says to give God the first part—honor God by first giving money to him, and then paying your bills. If you wait to give God the left-overs after you’ve paid your bills and used your money for your own desires, you’ll discover that you just never seem to have any left-over. The enemy of your soul will see to that!

It takes a step of faith to begin this practice of honoring God first with your money, but this is truly the first step to financial stability for a Christ-follower. How much should you give? Think of what you think you can afford, and then double it. That’s a good starting place. Give God more than you think you can. It’s the one place God invites us to test him. In Malachi he says, “Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10).

God is not promising us financial wealth, but he is promising financial stability and security if we will honor him first with our money. Start where you are—the sooner the better—and see if this lesson for living becomes one of the best principles you’ve put in place in your life. As my Dad said to me so often, “Honey, you can’t out-give God!” I promise that is true.