”Ignorance is bliss” is a common saying. Another way of saying that is, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”  There are many expressions like this that we grew up with but that are wrong.  For instance, with the first expression, if you are ignorant of God’s Word, does that make for a blissful life?  On our deathbed, would it hurt us to have no knowledge of Jesus Christ and everlasting life?

Ignorance is not bliss! What you don’t know will hurt you. Ignorance of finances from God’s perspective can lead to a life of frustration and despair.  It is much better to know how God says to handle finances than to be blissfully ignorant of His instructions and wisdom.

Here is another one: “God helps those that help themselves.” This is not true. God sent His son to deliver mankind when mankind could do nothing about his fallen position because of Adam’s sin. There are many examples of people whom Jesus Christ healed who could not help themselves.  What we can do is learn what is available from God and learn how to access God’s promises. Then we can go to the Throne of Grace to find strength and His HELP in time of need.

The world has taught us that: “What you see is what you get.”  God says we are to live by faith and not by what we see.  Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe.” We did not see Christ in his resurrected body, and we cannot see the promise of Christ’s return, but we believe both are true. We will receive this promise of Christ’s return at the appointed time. When you bring the tithes into the storehouse, can you SEE the windows of heaven open? No, but we live by trusting the promises of God (faith) not by what we see.

“You made your bed; you sleep in it.”  No, God made us a brand, new bed.  His “bed” gives us body, soul AND SPIRIT as well as everlasting life. I no longer have to live in the “bed” the devil helped me make.  I am now a citizen of the kingdom of God, and I will sleep in the bed, in the life, God has prepared for me.

Many Christians believe the idea that God is to keep the preacher humble, and their job is to keep him poor. Chapter and verse, please.

None of these sayings are found in God’s Word. These expressions and many more are the ways of the world.  They sound good, but they are not valid. Romans 12 tells us to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are to put on the thoughts of Christ, the mind of Christ.  We are to live by faith and not by sight.

Once you learn that what you have believed is not true, and you have learned the truth, you may be left with a set of negative emotions. Sometimes emotions may have more power over us than truth.

Here is an example of what I mean.  When I was a small boy, about five or six years old, my parents took me to a tent revival.  I heard the preacher say that even if you are born again and ask God to forgive you for your sins or a certain sin, and if you sin again and die in a car wreck on the way home that night before you can ask for forgiveness, God will send you to Hell because sin cannot be in the presence of God.  I also heard that when you die you will stand before the Great White Throne for judgment. The books will be opened and if you have too many sins, God will send you to Hell. This scared me to death. I felt I could never be good enough.

However, I learned as I got older that Jesus Christ paid for all our sins. He is a complete redeemer. We may sin while we are here on the earth, but when Jesus Christ comes back, all that are born again, all of God’s children, go home with Jesus Christ. We have already been judged and declared righteous by the work of Jesus Christ, so we will never stand before the Great White Throne. Instead, we as believers will stand before the judgment seat called The Bema to receive rewards for our labors of love while we await the return of the Son of God.

The problem I had for years was that even though I knew the truth that I am God’s child forever no matter what, I emotionally felt that God was cold and uncaring. Once again, emotions can be more powerful than our understanding and belief of truth. The wrong teachings from my youth left me with the feeling that God did not care at all whether you went to Heaven or spent eternity in Hell. I felt He just did not care.

Now, I knew that was not true.  God says in His Word that He is a God of love. The truth is that once we are His children, we can never be separated from God and His love no matter what.  But the emotion of His not caring was a struggle to overcome.

I talked to God about that many times and asked Him to show me what to do about that problem.  I thought to myself, if He paid off my bills would I then believe He loved me? No, because in 10 years or less, the bills would be back, and then what? He would have to do it again because it did not last.  Finally, one day He caused me to realize my problem was that I did not believe properly. Although I had learned and taught the verse that says God introduced His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, I did not believe it. As I worked on that verse to believe it, the problem quickly left. I saw that God did not have to “do” anything to convince me of His love because He already had given the proof.   I was amazed at my own unbelief. If you would have asked me, ”Do you believe that verse?,” I would have said “Yes.”  But, apparently, I did not.

I gave the above example to say this:  You may find that what you were taught about money, or what you learned from the culture, your church, or family left you with the feeling of not being good enough before God for The Prosperous Life or a sense of hopelessness for example.  The way to deal with those emotions is to decide to believe and trust that what God says is the truth, not your feelings.  Ask God for help in that area, and He will.

So, when it comes to your money, don’t be content to be blissfully ignorant. What you don’t know or believe will hurt you.  Instead, go to work, begin to study what God has really said in His Word, and then read and study how other enlightened Christians have applied those truths in our day and time. Watch your life and finances begin to change as you apply the principles. Then you will see more of The Prosperous Life open up in your life.