“Life is short. You only live once.” You’ve probably heard this cliché before and you can take it in positive or negative light. You can either be carelessly adventurous with your decisions without thinking of the consequences, or you can be mindful of every choice you make because you understand that anything you do will have an impact on your future, and more importantly, your eternity. You see, how we look at how long we live in the world impacts the way we manage our resources. God has given us time, talents, and treasures; all of which have value and can be used to benefit others, or simply consumed for selfish interests. We don’t know how long we will last here on earth but the book of Psalms often uses words like “fleeting,” “nothing,” “breath,” and “phantom” to describe man’s life. Our life on earth is but a tiny speck compared to the timeline of eternity. Many of Jesus’ parables remind us of keeping an eternal perspective. What the Bible says about having treasures? Luke 12:32-34 says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.Sell your possessions and give to the…

We live in a consumer-driven culture where most people are in pursuit of material possessions. We’ve been accustomed to people trying to get noticed in social media with all the new things they have bought. Older people call the young people today as the ‘Selfie’ generation. It’s said that this generation thinks everything is about them and the world owes them a lifestyle of instant indulgence.We’re all familiar with the sales pitch telling us to ‘buy now, pay later’. Modern consumerism tells us we can get things instantly; we just have to swipe our credit card and worry about paying later. To avoid falling from this deception, we need to understand that God’s Word is full of instructions on how to handle our finances. We need to dig deep and prayerfully meditate on godly principles that will help us overcome the ongoing trend of our consumer-driven culture. Here are five things you need to put in your heart to be a Christ-centred steward of your finances. 1. God owns everything; you get to be the steward. It’s tempting to think that because we worked hard for our pay cheques, we’re the one’s who own every cent of it so we…

We all know how important financial stewardship is in a person’s life. The world is full of examples of people who haven’t handled money the right way and paid for the consequences dearly. If you’re a parent, you want to teach your children how to become financially savvy while they’re young. Parents are the number one influence on their children’s financial behaviours. It’s up to you to raise a generation of wise consumers, investors, savers, and givers. The Bible has a lot to say regarding how we should be using our money. This means we should be teaching these financial principles to our children and teaching them at least the basics of personal money management. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” It’s never too early to start teaching your children about managing money. Below are the top lessons to help your child learn how to manage money, as well as activities that you can do to effectively teach them: 1. Work: Money is a fruit of your labour. When children see cash simply pop out of the ATM, they think that we have…

The holiday rush is over and a new year has just begun. It’s a good time to take a look at where you are financially and check your financial goals for the New Year. This is a fresh start for you and a chance to be wiser on the way you handle your money. If you had some setbacks last year, this year gives you a chance to apply all the lessons you’ve learned so you’ll be in better financial shape. The Bible is the best source of information when it comes to financial stewardship. Here are a few principles to follow so you can have a great start in 2018. 1. Be faithful in your tithe. God is a giver, not a taker. So you ask, why do I have to give 10% of my income to him? Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” The portion that God asks from us is to make sure that our trust and dependence is on him not on money. It allows us to exercise our “faith…

We all have our reasons why not to give. The common barriers to generosity are pride, greed, debt, stinginess, or busyness. Pride because sometimes we believe that we’ve worked hard for everything we own therefore it is ours and ours alone. We blame the poor for their situation and we judge them as lazy or taking advantage of us when they ask for help. Greed because whether we admit it or not, we always want more and seem to not get enough. Because of this lack of contentment, we are more inclined to take than to give. Debt because how can you give freely if you are a slave to your lenders. Financial debt has a way of choking out generosity because our additional resources are going towards monthly payments and high interest rates! Stinginess because we always calculate the possible returns for each amount that we give. The motivation is to get something by giving. And if we do give, we want to make sure that no one gets more than they should. We ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ first before we give. Busyness because we don’t have time to help and think of what we can do…