Treasures in Heaven

How does your mindset affect your financial success?

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I hope that my mindset is affected by the Bible. In many circumstances, an intense desire for wealth can lead to evil behaviour. Yet, if you’re poor due to laziness or lack of ambition, you can end up being dependant on others. God loves the genuine poor, but I wouldn’t want to be poor out of laziness. Even in the New Testament, though the genuine poor were helped, some sought to take advantage of the church. Here is what the Apostle Paul said 😀.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-11
¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” ¹¹ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹² Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. ¹³ And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

The ideal would be to be rich and use the money to help others into supporting themselves. But of course, getting rich isn’t easy. I do admire entrepreneurs and ambitious people, eventhough I don’t feel that I am that type myself. How would I have found a job and what would the Irish economy be like if none of us were ambitious? Those of us who are a bit limited can at least support those who are talented rather than be envious or despise them. And working hard in school, college, and work has helped me to have enough to get by and to support others to some extent.

Here are two passages in the New Testament.

1 Timothy 6:6-17
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  

The first emphasize being content with what you have instead of being greedy for gain. The second suggests that we should use whatever talents that God has given us. Some might think that the intention is to use them for spiritual work. But even in secular terms, the most successful nations in the world have been built by people with a strong work ethic who wanted to make their country great rather than sitting back and depending on others. Maybe some were driven by their ego or by the desire to get wealthy themselves, but their success has had a ripple effect. I used to hate capitalism, but it seems to be what works. And people tend to want to emigrate to such countries. I would like to see a model communist country that actually worked without some scary regime. Maybe that’ll happen someda,y but I don’t suppose that I’ll live to see it. And nowadays, capitalist countries have been influenced by socialist principles, so there’s much help available for people in need. Almost all my education was free. Whenever I lost any jobs, I was helped before I found another one. And healthcare was often free. But that all had to be paid for by taxes. I would hope that I paid more in taxes than I received. Given that so many people laid down their lives for their country or good causes, I’d like to at least do my little bit to make the world a better place.