Prosperous Mindset 2 - Valuing Money Correctly

 Matthew 6:24 - "No one can serve to masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon."

When reading this verse, keep this in mind:
God is "the one" - Mammon is "the other." Mammon is the personification of this world's system, and everything that it has to offer. Overwhelmingly, the driving force behind everything in this "Mammon" system is money.

If you're in love with money, you will hate God. But when you're loyal to God, you will despise (not hate) money. To "despise" something doesn't mean to hate it or be repulsed by it. To despise simply means to take it lightly, or not put too much value in it.

This is the second mindset of prosperous people: they understand that money is only a means to an end, not the end itself.

Mindset #2 - Prosperous People Value Money Correctly.

These people know that money actually won't solve most of life's problems.
Screwdrivers only work on screws.
Hammers only work on nails.
You don't use crowbars to cut tomatoes.
And money only works on financial issues. It is entirely useless in solving any other kinds of problems.

For example:

Money will not fix depression. If you're depressed when you're poor, you'd still be depressed if you became rich. 

Money will not fix your marriage. It was not the lack of finances that broke your marriage, and it won't be the abundance of finances that fixes it. If you won't fix your marriage now, a larger account balance will only mean more to split up in the divorce.

Money will not provide you with confidence. If you're insecure in yourself now, that insecurity will not go away with more dollars in your wallet. Unfortunately, any wealth you obtain while in a state of insecurity will only end up being spent trying to buy confidence.

If you are undisciplined right now and spending beyond your means, then you will continue to spend beyond your means, even when you possess more means. (This is what Dave Ramsey calls "income rich, but cash poor" - when someone has a high income, but poor spending habits.)

Money is not enough to fix any of these "non-financial" problems, and prosperous people know this.

Not Identified With What You Have

Luke 12:15 - "And He said to them, 'Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses.'"

Contrary to popular opinion, covetousness isn't defined as "wanting what belongs to another person." No, according to what Jesus said in this verse, covetousness is defining your life based on what you have or don't have.

In other words:
If you think your life is bad because you don't have what you want - you're being covetous.
If you think someone else's life is better than yours because they have more than you, you're coveting what they have.
And if you think your life is good because you have a lot of stuff, you're being covetous...even though you're not actively trying to get more.

When you see covetousness this way, you begin to realize that this is a sin of both rich and poor alike. Using your abundance (or your lack of it) as a measure of how valuable your life is is a sin. You know when you're committing this sin by looking at your attitude about your possessions.

Do you get depressed when you don't have something that you want?
Do you become envious - even angry - when someone else has more than you?
Do you tend to be more "at peace" when you have more things?
If you answered yes to any of these - then you need to repent of coveting!

Prosperous people do not identify themselves by their money! (Not by the abundance of it, and not by the lack of it.)

Not Worth Spending What Really Matters

Because prosperous people have a proper valuation of money...
Because they know money is not the answer to all of their problems...
And because they don't identify themselves by whether they have money or not...
,,,these people refuse to spend something that matters more to get it!

I'm not saying that money has no value whatsoever...but I am saying that there are many things that have more value than it. And we need to be diligent to keep hold of the more valuable things, and not to exchange them for what's less valuable.
Don't give up your family for finances.|
Don't lay down your health to obtain wealth.
Don't surrender your character for a paycheck.
Keep your perspective clear, and know where true value lies.

I've made this decision personally: Financial prosperity will not come at the expense of my marriage or my kids. If, for whatever reason, my wife, my kids, or I can't handle living right and being wealthy; then we will choose living right. Wealth will not end up hurting my marriage or my kids...because those are infinitely higher in value than mere dollars and cents.

So if we're going to prosper financially, then we need to have this resolved: Financial prosperity is of lower value than other things in our life. And we will not trade those things for what's worth less!