Five Reasons Satan Doesn’t Want You to Read These Posts & Five Reasons That You Should

Financial Friday 11/15/19

Welcome to Financial Friday! At First Church of Christ where I am the pastor we are in the middle of sermon series on biblical money management. You can check it out here. But there is so much more that needs to be said than I can fit into three sermons. So every Friday (or nearly every Friday:) I’m going to be posting thoughts, resources, and biblical instruction on how to deal with the elephant in the room of our finances. I encourage you to add your email to the list so you’ll be alerted when I have posted something new. This is my personal blog, so I also like to write about other stuff pertaining to faith and trying to live as faithful disciples of Jesus.

But let me just get this straight from the start: I am in no way, shape, or manner any kind of expert or guru on this subject. That thought is laughable. In fact, I’m just going to be straight with you that much of what I know about this subject has come from my mistakes. I have, however, made much progress by God’s grace and patience over the years. Most of us have a lot of room to grow and mature in this area. But it’s so important that we do. So I don’t write this to imply I have “arrived” in this matter of financial management. I have, however, learned a lot over the years as Lori and I have struggled to overcome several years of making bad money decisions. The effects of mistakes in the area of money management are not usually quickly or easily overcome. So, I do have a lot to say in this area based on some things we have done right as well as a lot of things we have done wrong. Okay? Am I clear. We’re all learners here. There are many, many resources by folks you can access as well. I’ll be sharing some of these with you. But the first one I would point to is Dave Ramsey. He has daily emails you can sign up for as well as whole lot of free resources and wisdom. But sometimes listening to him makes me feel like there is no hope for me! Have you ever felt like that? So that’s why I invite you to join me in the journey to blessing, peace, confidence, preparedness, godliness, and kingdom building. We’re fellow travellers!

So with all that understood I want to share with you in this first Financial Friday post what I think is the most important thing you need to know–Satan is real and he does not want you to read these posts. And here are five reasons for that as well as five reasons you absolutely must read them.

1. Satan hates your guts and wants more than anything to keep you from pleasing God and experiencing freedom from bondage. The apostle Peter reminds us that Satan is a lion just prowling around seeking to devour those who love God. He wants nothing for you other than your total defeat and destruction. This is why it’s so hard to make any positive change, especially with our finances.

2. Satan wants to destroy your marriage. If you are married that is the enemy’s goal. Nearly every conflict and argument leading to marital strife can be traced back ultimately to two things: money and sex. When I do premarital counseling for couples getting married I talk about this a lot. Unfortunately I get the sense that they don’t really listen because of course they will be different….than nearly every other married couple. Not. The reason Satan wants to destroy your marriage is because marriage according to Paul in Ephesians is meant to be a living, breathing symbol of the relationship between Christ and the church. There’s only One person Satan hates more than you and that’s Jesus.

3. Satan will do anything to hinder, halter, and interfere with the growth of the church, the Kingdom of God. And so he wants you to be always mired in debt with no savings for emergencies, no plan for retirement, and no idea what the Bible really teaches about giving. And this is quite simply so that we will not give to the church making it stronger, more effective, more life changing, and more glorifying to God. But, of course, Jesus wants the church be built and He is building it through us! And to do that resources are needed. That’s why Jesus talked a lot about our attitude and our handling of material resources! He wants His church to grow and He wants you to experience the joy of being an integral part of that!

4. Satan does not want us to grow in our faith and become more mature, faithful, and devoted followers of Jesus. According to Jesus “where our treasure is, there will be our hearts also.” Jesus wants our hearts. He wants all of us. He wants to be Lord over every part of our lives. So giving and being faithful with our finances is a matter of discipleship. Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 that our mission is to “go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey” all that He taught. And, again, Jesus taught a whole lot about money. Satan does not want us to be obedient in this because he hates Jesus and he hates your guts (see #1).

5. A fifth reason Satan does not want you to read these posts or do anything which will bring peace, stability, and faithfulness to your finances is because he loves chaos. Like the Joker in the Batman movies he loves chaos, disorder, and strife. This is the word that describes the financial lives of many of us at one time or another–chaos. And, yet, Jesus wants peace for us. And there is nothing like getting on a path and a plan which will lead us away from chaos and toward toward financial peace.

So these are just 5 (there are many more) reasons that Satan does not want you to read these posts. For the 5 reasons that you should make sure to read these posts please refer to the 5 reasons that Satan does not want you to read them.