Yesterday we asked the question, “Which attitude towards giving do you have?” You can be a cheerful giver or a stingy miser. Your attitude towards giving will reveal what your master is in life.

Today’s passage talks about a love for God versus a love for money. You cannot serve Jehovah God and the god of riches and wealth. One of these is going to interfere with the other. If you are constantly pursuing the riches of this world, it will take away from your ability to serve God.

Think about what you have done this week to serve the Lord. If you come at life and ministry with the attitude that nothing is too small or unimportant when it is done for the Lord, that is laying up treasure in Heaven.

Today I want to give you the first five of ten things that I think will help you make wise financial choices:

1. Tithe. This is the number one thing you can do to stay on track for God. It is acknowledging that you’d rather live on 90% with God’s blessing than 100% without. I firmly believe that if you don’t give 10% back to God, you’re robbing God.
2. Pay your bills. How do you do that? Don’t overextend yourself. Don’t buy things that you can’t afford.
3. Make a budget. Make sure that the amount you make is equal to or greater than your expenses.
4. Stick to your budget. Making a budget will not do anything for you unless you stick to it.
5. Have an emergency savings/backup plan. I believe you should have enough to be able to live a couple of months without an income.

Having financial control will help keep you from spending money on frivolous items and enable you to have more that you can give back to the Lord. Resolve today to lay up your treasure in Heaven.