In our culture, with everything that money can buy, it’s easy to confuse “being rich” with “being happy.” These days, people “live to work.” The more we work, the more money we have, enabling us to buy more, have more.

I recently stumbled across an article that discussed this very thing. The article included several testimonies from older millionaires who wished that they had lived their lives differently. This struck a chord with me. I was reminded that people often work hard throughout their lives to acquire great wealth but, at the end of it all, they don’t feel satisfied.

People often allow the distraction of money to get in the way of life’s true meaning– knowing and serving God. Money can either be a blessing or a distraction; it depends entirely on us. Don’t allow money to distract you from your purpose. Be wise and use His blessings to advance His Kingdom. Work for Him and He will bless you with more than what you can ever conceive or imagine. Matthew 6:24 states that “Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

The Bible also teaches us to be financially prepared. In fact, Proverbs 6:6-8 gives us an example of how to do this: “Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.” Take a careful look at the natural world God has created. His creatures aren’t wasteful or lazy. They are focused on preparing for the upcoming season. We too need to keep our priorities ordered, working diligently and saving so that if financial turmoil arises, we are not left unprepared.

Proverbs 21:20 and 21: 5 gives an important message about the ways of the wise man, who knows how to save: “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.”

In other words, by careful planning and management, along with God’s grace and guidance, your needs will be provided for, and your financial life will become stable and relatively worry-free. If we put Him first, in everything that we do, He will provide over and beyond what we expect, and our needs will be more than “just met.” His ways are so much higher than ours, His plans so much bigger than our own. He wishes to bless His children. But we must remember to put Him first.