My Wealthy Place

Chapter 1

The Acquisition of Wealth—A Worthy and Biblical Ambition

You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

—Deuteronomy 8:18 ESV

Wealth—An Emotionally Charged Word

The word wealth invokes many mental pictures and emotions in us all; one of my purposes for writing this book was to provoke in my readers a strong desire to acquire wealth. People are indeed getting wealthier. According to recent Forbes reports, there are more millionaires today than at any other time. But wealth means different things to different people, so it’s important to define what it means. Some people think of wealth in terms of possessions while others think of things that are truly important and lasting such as faith, family, and friends. Many people will choose both. I asked a number of people, “What does it mean to be wealthy?” I was amazed at the variety of responses.

Many Shades of Wealth

To some, wealth means not having to worry about price tags. To others, it means there’s food on the table, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs. Others think wealth means having enough that they don’t have to beg. Still others think of wealth as the freedom to do whatever they wish. And some think of wealth as having millions of dollars.

You shall remember the lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18 ESV)

We could read this as, But you shall remember Jehovah your God, for it is He who gives you the power to acquire much money or property; riches; large possessions of money, goods, or land; great abundance of worldly goods; affluence; opulence, valuable products, or contents.

I think of wealth as enough to do want, live where I want, drive what I want, see what I wish to see, go where I wish to go, and, most important, bless my generation, my church, my community, and my nation.

A Negative Mind-Set about Money

People’s differences are expressed in many ways. Some like big houses while others prefer small homes. Some people like big cars while others like small cars. Some people like swimming while others love skiing. Some people like lots of nice things, but others couldn’t care less about them. Some people love to stay home while others love to travel. Some people are frightened by progress while others love it.

Some of these differences don’t matter, but one difference that does is this: the vast majority believe it isn’t possible to become wealthy and won’t even try to gain wealth. They feel uncomfortable talking about money; they harbor negative attitudes about money and the pursuit of wealth. Why wouldn’t everyone aspire to be wealthy? Beats me! But I must confess I was a member of that tribe for years; I considered money a dirty word.

Our Formative Years

I can trace my negative attitude toward money to my childhood programming. Many of us can trace our opinions about wealth to the wrong information we received about God and wealth during our formative years.

I grew up in Jamaica with my grandparents, who were poor but hardworking people. I was told I’d been born in a small mud and grass hut. In the early sixties, when I was nine months old, my parents immigrated to Great Britain for economic reasons, leaving me in the care of my grandparents. I never met my parents until I was in my late teens. My childhood days were extremely hard, as were my teenage years.

My grandmother was blind, and my grandfather worked the field to make sure food was on the table. When he became ill, I continued to work the field and took care of them. For many months, I missed out on school to labor with him.

After my grandfather’s death, we would have gone without food many nights if loving neighbors hadn’t had pity on us. I loved my grandparents, who were two of the most God-fearing, loving people to grace this spinning planet, but I’m not sure if they helped or hindered me as far as my attitude about acquiring wealth was concerned.

I was programmed to think that it didn’t matter how hard I worked, that work would never make me rich because it wasn’t God’s will. My grandparents had taken a vow of poverty; they proudly purported, “Poverty will keep you humble.” But thank God I have long purged my mind of that doctrine because it isn’t true. Poverty doesn’t keep you humble—poverty humiliates you!

There’s nothing humbling about having my home or car repossessed or my children kicked out of private school because I can’t afford it. There’s nothing humbling about not being able to afford health care or food. There’s nothing humbling about being broke, disgusted, and busted.

Bad Influence

Others who reinforced my negative view of money included educators, relatives, friends, and, worst of all, religious leaders. They taught me bad concepts about money that I carried around for almost two decades. The secular world as well plants seeds in the minds of people that all churches and preachers are just after their money. This is such a hypocritical statement because every institution, company, billboard, commercial, restaurant, mall, outlet, business, and so on is geared toward one thing only: getting your money. The church provides a service to people and has a right to be funded just as any other institution does, but unfortunately, it has demonized money.

The Church’s Demonization of Money

The church has traditionally compared the pursuit of wealth with idolatry, and that’s affected Christians’ attitude toward it. This demon is still very much alive, but we’ll cast him out in Jesus’ name.

According to the traditional teaching, the poorer you are, the holier you are; it’s unnecessary to mention that if you’re rich, you’re ungodly. On the other extreme, many wealthy folks believe that being wealthy is a sign of God’s special favor and that being poor is a sign of God’s displeasure. Neither of these philosophies is healthy. Carefully examine the following Scriptures. Many preachers have used them to spread the poverty message and to reinforce the self-defeating thinking that money is evil. These beliefs are rooted in the misapplication of the following Scriptures. A brief rebuttal follows each quotation.

The Poverty Message Propagation Texts

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. (Luke 16:19–23 ESV) The Rebuttal

The poor man went to heaven and the rich man went to hell; this suggests rich folks won’t be going heaven. But that wasn’t the point Jesus was making; He was simply talking about human destinies, not wealth. Let us consider some more texts.