I was talking to a friend of mine a month ago or so, and he said, “I get it with what you are saying. I can see how these young people can really do this stuff, but what am I to do?  I am over 60; I can’t save enough to retire on.”

In the Old Testament, there is a record of three men who were told to bow to a statue made of gold set up in the plains of Dura. If they did not bow, they would burn in a fiery furnace.  They had a fellow servant of God, Daniel, who had been told by the king’s law that the only prayers to be offered for the next 30 days were to be offered to the king and any that refused would be thrown into a den of hungry lions. You can read all through the Old Testament up to that point, and there are not any promises of deliverance from a burning fiery furnace, and no promise of deliverance from a den of hungry lions. What were these men to do?  God’s Word shows us the nature of God and what He is like.  Through the records that were available to those men and from what they had heard of God, they knew of God’s love, His compassion, His care, His protection in battle, His mercy, His great power, and His promises of protection for those who love Him.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He had mercy on others, He will have mercy on you.   These men trusted that as God had delivered others in dire straits in the past, that He would deliver them also.  And He did.  The men were thrown into the burning fiery furnace, and God sent His angel to protect them.  They walked out alive with not even the smell of smoke on them. Similarly, God sent his angel to shut the lion’s mouths for Daniel, and Daniel had not a scratch.

We are going to read a parable that also shows the nature of God in another situation.

Matthew 20:1-16  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Many of us learned about saving money from God’s Word pretty late in life. If, in the parable, the householder paid the last the same as the first, I would trust that God would not hold it against us that we came so late to the party. His promises of prosperity are true at any age. They have no expiration dates.  God will not look at you and say, “Too late, you should have started earlier in the day.”

No, His promises are true at any age. God is full of mercy, love and compassion, and His promises fail not. Just get busy. Set up your bank accounts and pray. Remember, when you pray, not to beg.  Children don’t beg from their fathers. Children ask expecting their fathers to do as the father has promised. Likewise, we too should pray with great expectation that our Heavenly Father will do as He has promised. Many of the prayers in the Bible are of men praying back to God with God’s own words.  Like this: “Father you have promised in your Word that you will supply all our needs, and we have a need.  I need a retirement for my wife, and I am thankful that You have promised to meet our needs.  I just rest my life on Your Words and expect to see Your Word come to pass as I carry out what You have said.”  Something like that.

Then, learn to trade with the money in the accounts. Find a means to make it grow and trade with it. Start small and grow to bigger things if you want. Have fun. You have an advantage being older in that you have seen a lot more, been exposed to a lot more, so that you mentally have more to draw on in finding something in which to trade. 

Matthew 25:16-17  Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.   And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

These men did not just put the money in the bank. They went and doubled their money over time. You can do the same. Just because trading is a lost art does not mean we can’t learn it. I gave you a list earlier of money doubled and how rapidly it grows and multiplies. Use your age and wisdom and your relationship with your Father to have some new adventures in trading and seeing His promises come to pass.

Learn how to trade, do it with your Father, and have a great time. Even in retirement you too can enjoy The Prosperous Life!

Since I started to write about money and finances, I have had some people ask me about investing. I try to keep my blogs as close to the Word of God as possible. God does not say much about WHAT to invest in, but He does have much wisdom when it comes to certain aspects of how to manage your money.

One of the most important pieces of wisdom that God gives us is Proverbs 28.

Proverbs 28:19-22  He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.  A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have respect of persons is not good: for a piece of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

New Living Translation
Proverbs 28:20 The trustworthy person will get a rich reward, but a person who wants quick riches will get into trouble.

So, God says here that the hasty person shall have poverty come upon him, and he will get into trouble. What does it mean to be hasty?

On the internet the other day, I watched a short clip of Dave Ramsey talking about saving money. He stated that the average car payment in the US right now is about $500.00 per month. He stated that if you put that $500.00 per month into a good growth mutual fund from age 30 to 70 you would have $5.4 million. This is an example of steadily and faithfully applying the biblical principle of saving money.

About 10 minutes later, I saw Robert Kiyosaki talk about how to become rich using other people’s money (OPM). Buy a cheap house, fix it up, have it reappraised for a higher value, take out part of the new equity to use as the down payment on another house and then rent the first one out. You do this over and over. He stated that the way to become wealthy is with DEBT!

I saw a similar conversation on Facebook a couple of days later:

Debt is your friend!!??

“I just paid off my house in 10 years.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks, I saved so much. I paid it off in 10 years instead of 30! Now that I’m debt free, I’m ready to build wealth. How do I do it?”

“Refinance that home and put it all into investments.”

“What?! I just paid off my loan, now you’re telling me to get a new one?”

“Yep! If you want to be wealthy, you have to be comfortable using debt for investments. If you have $200K sitting in your house, it’s not making you any money. If you want to build wealth, pull out that money and put it to work.”

While this is A WAY to wealth, it is absolutely the wisdom of the world. This is for those hasty souls that are willing to risk that they won’t get caught when the music stops.

The advantage of a paid-off house is found here:

Proverbs 22:26  Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.

Proverbs 22:27  If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

The bankers can’t take your or your children’s beds. It is paid off. This is the Wisdom of God.

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it.

$5.4 million by following the wisdom of God and saving money for 40 years is a blessing, and there is not sorrow in that. But if you use debt and they take your family’s home, that could be great sorrow.

So, some of these debt-propounding gurus argue that there is good debt and bad debt. To me that is like arguing that there are good witches and evil witches. God just calls them witches and He calls debt, debt.

What does God say about debt? Does He agree that you need to get comfortable with debt to become wealthy?

Let’s look at some verses:

Deuteronomy 28:12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

Here, God says that He as THE LORD will open unto you His good treasure (storehouse). This is like the verse:

Proverbs 8:21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures (storehouses).

Here, God says HE will fill your treasures or storehouses. A storehouse for us is like a bank account. In the Old Testament times, they stored their crops against the winter coming up. We store cash because we are not an agricultural-based economy anymore. But God says HE will fill your storehouses. How? He will give rain unto your land in due season. That would be like God giving us the jobs we need and supplying us through our work. Then God says He will bless all the work of our hands. The context here is money. With all that blessing, who would need to borrow? Then God says we shall be lenders and NOT borrowers!!

If God is going to supply, we should have no real need to borrow. Borrowing is a real problem.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Proverbs 23:4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

The borrower, God says, is a servant to the lender. WOW – servant to the lender!!  Who are we supposed to serve? Well, in the Old Testament God told Pharoah to let His people go:

Exodus 8:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

We are servants as well as sons and daughters of God Almighty. Our Father has great resources to supply all we need and more. We are to serve Him. He has said HE will fill our storehouses. This is the wisdom of God.

So then, if we decide God’s way is not quick enough for us in the gaining of wealth, the only wisdom left is the wisdom of the world – the use of debt. It may look good going in, but God says it ends in poverty and will get you into trouble.

So, you might ask then, if I am never to have debt, how would I ever buy a house? Good question. The economy we live in is designed for us to be in debt all our lives or at least most of our lives. If you read the book, The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, it talks about how the bankers set up our economy so we would be paying them every month for years via car loans, house loans, credit cards, and school loans. These are the ways and wisdom of the world. God has a better way. We cannot change how our economy works, but we can decide to not play the game of life long debt. We can pay off those loans as quickly as possible. Pay them off in 10 years instead of 30 and have a secure home for our family and children.

If you buy a house, pay it off as quickly as possible. It is quite a nice feeling to not owe on your home. No one can take it away from you no matter what the economy does.

Our natural way of thinking is to believe that the way things are today is how they will continue to be forever. Inflation is increasing the value of properties, so the gurus say, “Refinance and get some.” But that is just not true. You can easily wake up one morning and everything has changed. I have lived through three economic downturns in our state since the early 1970’s.

When the price of oil dropped in the 1990’s, we lost our home and all of our rental property that we bought using OPM. It was interesting and sad. Many banks that had loaned out money to drill oil wells were considered unstable, and the FED moved in and closed them. The FED then called the loans due that had been loaned out to drill wells. In other words, the borrowers had to pay the loans off in full immediately. If they could not, and most could not, the FED took the wells and the collateral used for the loan, usually the person’s home. One banker told me they were repossessing homes at the rate here in the city of 400 houses per month. That was just one bank. The FED made the banks resell those houses immediately. They were not allowed to hold them until the economy improved. Some homes were sold for half the value of the year before. I knew of a friend at that time who bought a house in a wealthy neighborhood that was valued at $350,000 the year before, and he paid about $175,000.

With repossessed houses being sold so cheap, new construction could not compete with that pricing, and it soon shut down all together. Because of all this, the oil workers moved out of town, and the construction workers moved to Tennessee and Dallas where there was still work. This left rental apartments at about 50% vacancy. The apartments were giving away two- and three-months free rent if you would just move in. This caused a lot of folks with rental property, us included, to have their properties repossessed. Times were hard.

God said if you follow the wisdom of the world – vain person, real estate gurus – and are hasty to be rich you will get into trouble and come to poverty.

Some people may have gotten out in time, but most did not. Just like you hear of the lucky soul that made a fortune in the casino or the lottery, but most do not. God has a better way.

What can you do with the money you have saved? In one of the parables Jesus told, he talked about the householder giving his servant talents, and they went and TRADED with them and doubled their money. He did not tell them to get a loan and trade with the borrowed money. The servants started their trading from a position of cash. Trading is a lost art in our day and time, but some still do it. I have met people who buy and sell golf courses or businesses they bought from the IRS, made them profitable, and then sold them. People buy and sell everything from antiques, storage buildings full of junk, boats, and cars. Some buy and sell stocks and bonds and crypto.

I learned a few years ago that wealthy people wait until what they want is at a price that is at rock bottom. Then they buy. I have a builder that will buy empty lots to build on from other builders at times but only just before the other builder goes bankrupt.

The wealthy may wait years for silver to get to a price point where they are willing to buy. When it does, they pay cash and do not borrow. Warren Buffet has said, “Cash is a position.”

In times like we are having right now, good economy and rising inflation, you see many people hawking, “Make your fortune in real estate!”  Classes, seminars, books, and short video clips are being touted. Yet as I wrote earlier, nothing stays the same. The economy will change and when it does, one thing those classes never talk about is where does the money come from to make those mortgage payments when the houses are empty. Or as we have had recently when the government declares a moratorium on rent. You must make your payment on how many houses or apartments and no money coming in. You make those payments out of your savings, or they take everything you own. These gurus never cover that subject. Just like the rest of society, they assume property values and rent will continue to rise forever. That is not reality. That is the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of vain persons.

In our pursuit of The Prosperous Life, we want to know and walk upon the wisdom of God.

I wanted to leave you with this wisdom that God has given us in the Book of Psalms. Notice, it says here lending the same as it did in Deuteronomy.

Psalm 112:5-9 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.

3 John 1:2  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Just note that the prosperity referred to here in 3 John 2 is to prosper in many areas of life not just financial. The third chapter of Proverbs gives us great insight into how to prosper and be in health and how to prosper your soul.

Proverbs 3:1-5  My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

We trust in the Lord by doing or keeping His Word. To the best of our ability, we do or carry out what God has asked us to do. We give and forgive, we walk in love, we speak in tongues, and in all things, we endeavor to keep Him and His Word first as our standard for believing and living.

Proverbs 3:6-11  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns (storehouses) be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

Interesting:  These verses deal with health and prosperity the same as 3 John 2. Note that in these verses, with regard to prosperity, the principle stated is to honor the Lord. In other words, take it to the temple. Second, they were to have a place to store the increase that God gave them. In their case, as an agricultural society, they were to have barns (storehouses). We might have savings accounts/storehouses for the abundance that God gives because of our giving.

In our walk, our life with God, we sometimes will need major and minor corrections in our course. It is like driving a car. To keep the car on course, it takes hundreds of minor corrections to keep it on the right road and to avoid danger.

Proverbs 3:12-13  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

The word “happy” in verse 13 is the same as the word “blessed” used in the first Psalm. Note here, too, that “blessed – happy” relates to prospering in whatsoever you do.

Psalm 1:1-3  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The man here in Psalm 1 is prospering his soul as 3 John 2 says by delighting in the Word of God day and night. This is similar to, if not the same as, “seek ye first the kingdom of God” or “as thy soul prospereth”. How do we delight in the Word of God? By reminding ourselves during the day that we are the children of God, that we are set apart from the world by the work of Jesus Christ, that we are righteous, that our lives with our Father and Lord Jesus Christ are just beginning, and that we have a long future ahead of us. We delight in these truths.

Proverbs 3:14-15  For the merchandise of it (wisdom) is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She ( the wisdom of God’s Word) is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

Every place you read “She” or “Her” in this chapter is a figure of speech where the wisdom of God is referred to as a woman.

Proverbs 3:16  Length of days (health) is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour (prosperity).

Once again, it is the same as God’s great desire in 3 John 2 to prosper and be in health. And the key to these two things is to cling to, to delight in the wisdom of God and keep His Word first in our lives.

Proverbs 3:17-19  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

The wisdom of God that we are encouraged here to learn and live by is very great and powerful. God’s wisdom is so great and powerful it founded the earth and established the heavens. So, living according to the wisdom of God can give you a long peaceful life and great prosperity.

Proverbs 3:20-26  By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let not them ( the wise words of God) depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

God gives a great many promises in this chapter to those who love Him and keep His Word first in their hearts. This chapter could be considered a key to unlocking the door of The Prosperous Life.

Live long and prosper.