It’s reassuring to know that we have something or someone we can rely on when we face a challenge, but what we place our trust in can either help or hurt us. As children, most of us heard the story about the wolf in sheep’s clothing sneaking into a herd of unsuspecting, trusting sheep, and destroying them. The same can be said of putting too much faith in financial wealth to get us what we need in life.

Money can let us down, and there are multiple warnings in the Bible about developing a wrong relationship with it. There’s nothing wrong with having money, as long as we don’t love it more than anything else. During His ministry, Jesus had much to say about money management. “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Money can cloud people’s better judgment and cause them to do foolish things out of greed; we must be on guard against this.

Pursuing money for its own sake and making it our number one goal only leads to disappointment and pain. We see people in all walks of life and all income brackets exhibit this behavior because of the allure wealth can have. God loves us and doesn’t want us to get hurt by trusting in something so fickle and undependable. “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). Wealth has the ability to fool us into thinking it can give us what God can’t, which is why the love of money is so dangerous.

Wrong-thinking in the financial realm can be disastrous. We see daily news reports of robberies and murders committed for money. Money is the reason some marriages end in divorce. If we become addicted to its appeal, we find that it can’t give us the same substance as God. “Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, 11, NLT).

Money charms us, and then leaves us high and dry during our most difficult times—God will never leave us. “Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” (Hebrews 13:5, AMPC). The world is a noisy place filled with people who don’t understand how money can influence our spiritual well-being. We mustn’t miss this important point.

God wants to bless us financially. Approaching money management with the right mindset makes it possible for Him to do so. “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18). Believing this will position us to receive His blessings.