Do you think it is wrong to ask the Lord to help you with finances?
The Bible does not condemn people for praying about finances. In fact, when Jesus gave His exemplary prayer, He made sure to include this: Matt 6:9, 11 “This, then, is how you should pray:… Give us today our daily bread.”
However, we can pray for financial blessing for the wrong motive. This is the wrong way to pray, and those who pray this way cannot expect to be blessed. What are some wrong motives for requesting financial help?
1. Selfishness and greed. James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
2. Worry. Matt 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Why can we not be blessed if we pray because we are worried? Very simply because being worried is a manifestation of lack of trust in the Lord! Too often we pray about facts (I lost my job! I don’t have the money to buy a new car. My fridge broke down…), and not about truth. The truth is that God’s Word is always true, and it is filled with promises that God always keep. 1 Peter 1:24-25 “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.”
Our facts may be facts today, but they won’t be facts 10 years from now. God’s Word is always true-yesterday as well as today and as tomorrow. God is not a liar! His Word is truth and He will always honor the prayer based on His Word and is pronounced in faith for unselfish reasons. This is why James encouraged us to: James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
Reading God’s Word, but not applying it in your life, is like sowing seeds on cement and then complaining that you have received no crop. God’s Word needs to be sown in our heart, and through God’s Holy Spirit, it needs to germinate with the ultimate goal of a harvest of good fruit.
Don’t pray the facts of your life my friend. Pray the truth of God’s Word, pray His promises and make them your own. Do you want to have a powerful prayer life? Base your prayers on God’s promises and let God’s Spirit guide you in your prayers. John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
Stop acting like Martha, although she had good intentions, but start to wait for the Lord like Mary did. Luke 10:38-42 “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
God is not a “fast food restaurant” kind of God. You cannot order Him around to achieve your own selfish goals. He is the Creator, and He will only do what is best for us-not what we think is best for us. His promise stands firm: Isa 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” NAS
Are you willing to wait for the Lord? Are you ready to stop praying the facts of your life and start trusting God? Are you willing to pray only truth from now on and experience God’s promises in your life? The choice is yours my friend. You can experience His power in your life. All it requires is trust and start digging for His golden promises found in His Word. Are you willing to do that?
Rob Chaffart
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No it is not wrong as such, but how you do it will mean a lot.
Firstly you must understand that we already have a promise that God will take care of all our material needs.
Matthew 6:31-AV Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Matthew 6:32-AV (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Matthew 6:33-AV But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:34-AV Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.
In these verses we are told to not worry about material needs. We need to be careful when asking for help with finances that we do not demonstrate a lack of faith in this promise. God does not reward a lack of faith in His promises, rather He rewards faith that He told us the truth. So there is one difficulty to get around. He reads the heart don’t forget.
There is another problem when asking for material needs for self. If there is any gain in it for you personally you have the difficulty of convincing God that this is not going to be used unwisely or in any way corrupt you.
Jam 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.
A prayer for a win in the lottery for instance is just wasting your time and indicating that you need further instruction on how to ask things of God.
I know there are texts in the bible that, taken in isolation, often give the impression that God ‘must’ answer your prayer and that you can ask ‘anything’ in His name and it will be granted. When reading these texts you must understand that the conditions for successful prayer are implied. Given that all these conditions are met, then yes, these statements are correct. Read the responses to the recent answer to the question ‘Why does it seem that prayers are sometimes not answered?’ to get a more detailed picture of the things to avoid when submitting prayer.
1Jo 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1Jo 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Note in the above verses that the key to receiving is to ask ‘according to His will’. That encompasses a whole range of conditions for successful prayer.
There are verses in the bible that seem to indicate that repeated asking will get a response because the person being asked will eventually give in to get you off his back. I am loathe to apply these examples as being an indication that repetitive prayer for something will succeed. I rather think that these examples were given to apply to requesting things of other people. God does not seem to me to be vulnerable to nagging and His patience is infinite. These examples also raise a conflict with the principle that we are to ask and then ‘believe’ that our prayer is answered. Continued repetition of the same prayer or nagging would seem only to indicate unbelief.
There are examples of successful prayer for self in the bible. Notably the prayer of Jabez and the prayer of Solomon that he might have wisdom. Jabez’s prayer is rather famous.
1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep [me] from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
First of all Jabez asked God to bless him. You may do the same. God loves to give blessings to his children. Jabez did not specify what type of blessing he should receive, he left that to God.
Secondly, Jabez asked God to enlarge his coast, or boundaries. In other words to give him more responsibilities.
Thirdly Jabez asked God that His hand might be with him. If we have our responsibilities increased we will reach the point where we cannot do the work in our own strength because there is too much. If we have the hand of God with us then there is no limit to what we can achieve.
Fourthly Jabez asked God to keep him from evil that it not grieve him. In other words he wanted God to protect him from becoming puffed up with his own importance, to not do things that would hurt people, to protect him from his sinful human nature so that he might be a good administrator of all that God had given him.
This is the kind of prayer for self that is not ‘selfish’ and is likely to be answered. So I would suggest that instead of praying for help with finances and risking offending God by demonstrating a lack of faith, ask instead for God’s blessing on your life. He knows what you have need of. Remember that a person with plenty, who has need of nothing in a material sense is unable to receive a blessing in this way. But a person who is in financial trouble, who prays the right way with the right attitude, will receive blessing after blessing as God provides for them in miraculous ways.
Dear reader if you do not have God’s blessing in your life please answer “The Savior’s Call” in this newsletter.
Lance Wearmouth
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I’ll answer that question with this quote from the Bible: “I wish that you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers”.
Dave
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I believe God wants to be involved in our finances in orders that we build faith and to bless us.
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10
If you don’t believe in tithe, check out Malachi 3:8, the money given will either be tithe or offering, given by Spiritual Israel (for another question). May God bless you exceedingly, abundantly.
Teri Foster in CO
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I think it is okay to ask God for help with finances. we can ask him anything. finances can be a touchy subject. I do not think we should ask for wealth…but needs. even to the point to asking for help and guidance and managing our finances. asking for help and waiting on the Lord’s answer is just one part of the awesome relationship we have with Him. I might add, and some might not want to hear this. Jim and I strongly believe in giving that portion of what we have “back” to the Lord as we believe it is not our to begin with and then to go on and give beyond that cheer givers always find that somehow someway our Lord always provides for us. love and prayers,
Judie and Jim
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I think God wants us give Him all our burdens and cares and sometime finances can be a big burden.
Martha Valentine
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I believe that the Lord likes to have us ask for anything. He likes us to trust Him with everything … including our finances. It says to ask and you shall receive. I think you should ask the Lord about everything (and every aspect of our lives) … after all He even knows the number of hairs on our heads … He cares.
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James 4:3 says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Evidently asking with the right motives is okay. If you don’t receive, you’d better check out your motive. If you trust in God, it really doesn’t matter the amount of income. I’ve learned that the reason God gives me anything beyond my need is to pass on to those with the need. Everything we receive from God is only a loan which must be returned to the owner: money, body, heart, persons we love, family members, friends–everything. Our salvation cost God everything He has and everything He is. The cost of our salvation is the same for us. That is what we must pay to buy from Him the gold of love, the white clothes of righteousness, and the eye salve of understanding the Bible. Revelation 3:18.
Sandra Cruz
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No, I do not think it is wrong to ask for God’s help with money. I do think that requests for extravagant houses/cars/gifts will fall on deaf ears. However, seeking God’s will in relationship to your finances is part of fitting your will with God’s will. The real question is not whether it is wrong to ask God for help, but rather what your motives are for doing so. God wants each of us to be happy. None of us to be poor. But in this country we are all so richly blessed, compared to those around the world and those who have lived centuries before us, that none of us is really poor. What most of us need to ask God’s help with is not making more money, but spending it wisely, using it to help others, using our resources to build up other people and the church.
Tom Asimos
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Not actually. He wants us to “Cast All Our Cares On Him For He Cares For Us.” That would include any cares about finances. To pray to Him to make a way for us to meet all our financial responsibilities is absolutely fine. BUT, it wouldn’t be fine to just pray for extra money to have for material desires of our heart. He knows what we need before we even ask Him, but it is His desire that we come to Him in prayer for EVERYTHING we need. MAY ALL BE BLESSED!
Love DeeDee
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I don’t think it is WRONG to ever ask GOD for help with anything. Money is a necessity to live in this day and by asking God for help you are only asking for him to fulfill his promise of abundance. People have such conflicting views about money. Money is just a means of exchange and a way of freedom. No big deal.
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No, I don’t think it’s wrong to ask for help, but we should keep a few things in mind when praying for finances (or anything else):
1. We should always submit to God’s will in prayer. (Luke 22:42)
2. A prayer like Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer (give us today our daily bread, Matthew 6:11)is a good model of how to pray for financial needs. God will give us what we need for each day if we ask Him. However, a prayer that I’ve actually heard in real life, which I think is unreasonable, is someone promising God they will do all these great things for Him if He allows them to win the lottery. I don’t think this shows good faith or obedience to the will of God.
3. There is nothing wrong, I think, with praying about specific financial problems, but we should also be open to other blessings from God that we may overlook. Sometimes, even a non-specific prayer is good, such as the one prayed by Jabez, “Oh, that you may truly bless me and extend my boundaries! Help me and make me free of misfortune, without pain!” (1 Chronicles 4:10, New American Bible) Your sister in Christ,
AJ
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Very few realize that Jesus spoke more about stewardship and proper handling of money than He did heaven or hell…. if Jesus put a premium on finances, then He must want us to have wisdom on finance – that being said – we’re told to seek wisdom – Godly wisdom – so certainly, we are to go to Him regarding money.
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Absolutely not! In fact it is imperative that we do ask of Him. God expressly wants us to be good stewards of His financial blessings to us; if we don’t know how to handle that with which He has graced us then we have no option _but_ to ask (James 1:5). However, if our motives are wrong – praying for a lottery win, for example – then the answer is also to be found in James (4:3).
He has promised to meet our needs, and His promise is faithful. So long as we obey the 1st Commandment and do not try to serve two masters (Matt 6:24) God will always bless us abundantly.
Patrick Salmon
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The Lord would like for us to take all of our problems to Him. If we seek wealth for wealth sake, then don’t call. You have a idol. If you are in dire financial straights, as I am currently, yes take it to God in Prayer.
I lost part of my thumb during an accident and my wife had surgery. We are still paying off these hospital/doctor bills. But with God’s help, they will be finished in two months.
During the tough times, we got tough. We ate at home, prayed every night and were fine. We have a new view on finances. There is a huge gap between needs and wants.
My wife is from Mexico and believes the people there are more spiritual, in general, than people from the USA. I have to agree. We have too many ‘things’. We buy things, fix things, store things and sometimes they get in the way and obsure our spiritual vision. It is easier for a poor person to enter the kingdom of God because his interests are better defined. I am guitly of too many ‘things’,. I am selling two motorcycles and two cars, but still will have one motorcycle, a pickup, a van and two cars, two homes. Time to downsize, simplify my life.
B. J. Cassady