Managing your finances with the right perspective can make it a spiritual affair and help you build the kingdom of God.
Photo by Fabian Blank
When it comes to our financial lives, it can be easy to focus on ourselves, but managing our finances doesn’t have to be a selfish experience. In his devotional “Money Matters: Living Joyfully Within Your Means,” E. Jeffrey Hill teaches that the true value of money comes “when it is used to do God’s work with your family and elsewhere.” But in order to use our money to do God’s work, we must manage it properly. Brother Hill identifies five ways that we can joyfully manage our finances:
- Create, use, and update a family budget.
- Minimize and eventually eliminate debt.
- Invest early, consistently, and wisely to build a financial reserve.
- Don’t do dumb things with your money!
- Be generous and share your resources with others.
As we do these things, we will be blessed with the ability to provide for our families; serve others; avoid the damage poor financial habits inflict on marriages; teach our children how to manage their finances; and build God’s kingdom through tithing, fast-offerings, and other Church donations.
Though money isn’t evil, “the love of money” is (1 Timothy 6:10). We need to make sure to consecrate our money to the Lord and prayerfully include him in our financial decisions. Brother Hill testifies that as we “build our financial homes upon the rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ…, when the rains of recessions descend, the floods of layoffs come, and the winds of high interest rates blow and beat upon our houses, our houses will not fall, for they will be founded upon the rock of Christ.”
Read more about how to better manage your finances to build the kingdom of God in E. Jeffrey Hill’s devotional “Money Matters: Living Joyfully Within Your Means.”
Source: BYU Speeches
—Hannah Charlesworth, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY MELISSA WALKER HORN
Find more insights
Read or watch Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk “Providing in the Lord’s Way” to learn more about how to intertwine the temporal and spiritual aspects of finances and welfare.
Learn more about using your finances to serve others in Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk “Are We Not All Beggars?”
Click here to get more information on the self-reliance courses, including the personal finances course, taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Find more insights on managing finances in “How to Become a Financial Guru” by Leah Davis.