5 Money Myths Christians Should Stop Believing

Do you feel weighted down by financial stress?

You're not alone. Money worries touch all of us. But Jesus tells us we don't have to carry that burden. That's why we at Faith Buy have written Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional from Faith Buy. Each day, you'll find scripture, reflection, and prayer to guide you through your journey toward peace. Request a copy of the Look at the Sparrows devotional today with your gift of $25 or more by going to faithbuy.com slash give. That's faithbuy.com slash give. The Bible has a lot to say about money and possessions, but there are some things it definitely doesn't say.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Unfortunately, the lies people believe about money can really lead them astray. Today, we'll expose five of those unbiblical beliefs, and then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. And by the way, you can call that number 24 seven. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.

Well, let's get right into it. The first money lie is a big one because it pervades our society. It's the belief that money is an I win, you lose game. If one person has more money, someone else will suffer with less. This assumption sees money as a zero-sum game. The more I have, the less you get, and so on. While this certainly is true in some cases, the main problem with this worldview is that it completely ignores the character and power of God.

It also leads people into living with a scarcity mindset driven by anxiety and fear. We know from scripture that our God is a generous father, owner of the cattle on a thousand hills in Psalm 50. He isn't limited by our finite resources. Look at Matthew 14, 13-21. Not only did Jesus feed 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish, but there was also 12 baskets of leftovers. God is in the business of abundance, not scarcity.

A second toxic belief about money flows out of the first. The world says there's never enough, so building wealth must be selfish and unbiblical. The reality is that God encourages us to build wealth.

Not to hoard, of course, but to accomplish great things in his kingdom. Proverbs 13-11 makes it clear that building wealth carefully is a part of godly stewardship. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. The fact is we can't share wealth we haven't created. With God's help, we can earn, save, and invest wisely to share what we have with those in need.

Now, a third lie about money is just as dangerous as the first two. It says more money equals more happiness. The truth is that as a believer in Christ, you already have everything you need to be joyful in him. My friend Dave Ramsey put it very well. More money will not make you happier.

It will only make you more of what you already are. Ecclesiastes 5-10 confirms this when it says, whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless. Sadly, the lie that money leads to contentment, fulfillment, or happiness is prevalent today. But Paul reveals the godly mindset in Philippians 4.

I have learned the secret of being content in any situation. Whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through him who gives me strength. This brings us to our fourth unbiblical money belief, one that's common among churchgoers everywhere. 10% of what I earn belongs to God. The truth is that 100% of your money, possessions, and very self belong to God. While the subject of the tithe is a matter of debate among Christians today, what matters most is the heart behind it. The mindset that says 10% is God's and the rest is mine is dangerous because it assumes that what we have and what we earn belongs to us in the first place. It turns our generosity into a matter of pride. We think the more I give, the better Christian I am. However, when we see things in their proper perspective, we understand that God owns it all and our living and giving become a humble response to his generosity. Deuteronomy 10-14 declares, behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that's in it. Knowing this, we can respond in obedience to the Lord and service to others advancing God's kingdom on earth.

We can pray the way David did when his people gathered to build the temple in Jerusalem. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand. Now the final lie is the assumption that if I give more money, God will give me more money. Does God bless obedience and faithfulness? Of course, but you can't manipulate the Lord by giving in order to get. God's blessings also come in many forms, not just financial. His blessings include wisdom, opportunity, deeper relationships, discernment, peace, and more.

Worldly lies about money and possessions are everywhere in our culture, even in the church. And one way to avoid the pitfalls of believing these toxic beliefs is to study God's word faithfully. The more you know about God's ways, the more equipped you'll be to handle his resources wisely.

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Mutual funds distributed by Timothy Partners LTD and ETFs distributed by Foresight Funds Services LLC. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. My name is Rob West. I'm your host today, and I'd love to take your calls and questions, helping you apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices. The number to call to be on the program today, 800-525-7000, with whatever you're thinking about in your financial life, 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go to Nashville.

Hi, Ken. How can I help? I got myself in a mess. We're about to lose our house, I think, with a big mortgage company, and they've been giving me advice on what to do, and they did me a forbearance, and then they did a modification, which we couldn't afford. So now they're telling me just to wait till it's denied and apply for another modification, but I get letters saying I missed this program or that program because we waited too long.

So I don't know if they're trying to get me to hold off until they can foreclose because we got a lot of equity, or is there organizations that you can get to help you work with these mortgage companies? Yeah, well, man, I'm sorry to hear about this situation. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you're doing all the right things. I'm sorry to hear that the modification isn't something that works with your budget. Ideally, you would, you know, try to avoid it and get back, you know, into a modification that does, in fact, allow you to get current and make good on it. I think at this point, I mean, do you have any kind of counsel, legal counsel, somebody walking with you and helping you with the negotiations? No, just the mortgage company, and you can't hardly understand half of them.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't think it would hurt to reach out to an attorney who kind of specializes in these types of matters who could, you know, maybe a bankruptcy attorney, not that I'm suggesting you go that route, but somebody who could advise you on trying to protect it. I mean, the bottom line is the mortgage company doesn't want to foreclose on you.

And, you know, I think the key would be getting into a modification that would allow you to get current on it. Is your situation improving or has it changed at all such that you could get back on to a reasonable payment if they were to give you something lower than what you have today? Not really. We're self-employed and you know how this economy is. And it just dropped out. We were doing good before all of this and everything just, our business just went to nothing.

Yeah, yeah. No, I certainly understand that. And are you out seeking other employment at this point? Or are you just full time still trying to run the business?

Or what's the next step for you? Still trying to run the business just because of my medical conditions. No one else will hire me. Of course, I can hire myself and that's what I do. But no one else will hire me with my heart issues. And like I said, I'm at an age where, you know, you want to be an old man without a home. Yeah, yeah, I understand.

So a couple of things. I mean, one would be you could reach out to HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. They have, you know, housing counseling available nationwide. So you could go to HUD, HUD.gov, and just search for avoiding foreclosure. What you're going to see there is a phone number that you can call to get a HUD approved housing counselor who could help you understand what your rights are and just, you know, that would give you some free advice.

Then obviously, you know, I would avoid any kind of foreclosure prevention companies, because there are a lot of scams out there. But I think, you know, and then the next biggest thing is just to lean into your lender, and just make sure that you are communicating with them, which it sounds like you have been, you all, you know, are both aligned in that they don't want this to go through the foreclosure process because of the costs involved, and you don't want to lose your home and the equity you have in it. So I think trying to work with the housing, the HUD approved counseling agency, in combined with you just having really good, you know, open communication with your lender opening and responding to all the mail for your lender, they'll send you good information on foreclosure prevention options that they have to legally make sure you know your mortgage rights, those will be outlined in all the documentation that you're receiving, and then use the, you know, foreclosure prevention options that are found online.

Again, these are all provided by HUD, they have some great articles there that you're going to want to look at and read up on and take full advantage of the resources they have available. And then if it comes to it, you know, reaching out to an attorney who could represent you, but I think those are your next steps. I think doing everything you can to get your finances in a situation where you have the ability to do something, even if that means one of you going out and getting kind of a side job, something with some regular steady income that would allow you to save the home, you know, certainly you could do a short sale. But I think the key right now is for you guys to just do everything possible to get back on track with at least some version of the mortgage modified to something you can afford. I realize that the income is gone, that's not an option. And that's why we may need to look at what other income options do you have while you're maintaining some semblance of the business. So I'd reach out to HUD, I'd lean into your lender and continue to work with them despite the fact that you think maybe they've led you astray. At the end of the day, you have aligned interests.

And that's making sure that this gets paid back in any way possible, even if it's not the way you originally agreed to. All the best to you can, we'll certainly be praying for you. And we appreciate your call today.

Let's head to Minnesota. Hi, David. Go ahead, sir. Hello, thank you for taking my call today. You're welcome.

So there's a bit of a setup, then the question and the follow through, I'll try to make it quick. So the setup, I worked at a company for just shy of eight years, they had an ESOP employee stock ownership program at this company. And it's a large lump sum of money that you receive when you leave the company. So to make a long story short, I actually invited a coworker to church and I got fired because I was not allowed to talk about Jesus in the workplace. They terminated me based on sharing my faith in the workplace. Now, about a month before that, everything was good.

Everything was great. I had the good job. My wife came up to me and said, Hey, I just feel really strongly that God is telling us to pay off our house. And I said, Okay, how?

And she said, I don't know. But I'm just telling you, God is telling me pay off our house, I'm going to provide. And we laughed about it, we thought that there was going to be like an inheritance or something. So then I ended up getting terminated from this job.

This was last year. And now in the fourth quarter of this year, I will have access to my ESOP money. And we have our vehicles are paid off, our student loans are paid off, we've been debt free for quite some time.

I am in my mid 30s. And so what I am wondering is, when we have access to that ESOP money this fourth quarter of this year, do you think or what should we do or whatever? Do we pay off the house as soon as we have access to that, say, October, November? Or do we wait until the very beginning of next year, January, February, because of tax reasons and purposes?

I know, with this being an election year, I mean, who knows what's going to happen with the taxes and stuff, but we just don't know. We're going to seek out financial advisor on it. Do we pay off the house this year, and deal with the taxes at the beginning of next year? Or do we pay it off at the beginning of next year and deal with the taxes in 2026? Yeah, or I'll throw out a third option, you may want to try to split it over two tax years, because that would hopefully prevent you from going up over pushing yourself up into a higher bracket for at least a portion of it. So you definitely need to get with your CPA sooner rather than later, you're probably going to have both income and ordinary income tax on the cost basis of the stock in the ESOP, and then long term capital gains on the appreciation. But again, I check with your CPA because it may make sense to do a portion this year and a portion next, but they'll tell you for sure. Thanks for your call.

We'll be right back. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers and community.

For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com. If the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind, Christian credit counselors can help. We're a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300,000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80% faster while honoring that debt in full. To learn how Christian credit counselors can help you, visit christiancreditcounselors.org.

That's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. Here in our final segment, we'll get to as many calls as we can. Got the lines all stacked up. Let's go down to Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Hi, Olive. Go right ahead. Thank you for taking my call, Rob. I'm getting ready to retire in about six months, and I have an investment account with FRS, Florida Retirement System. And I was speaking to some investment people, and they suggested an annuity where they would take my $520,000 and immediately add 30% to it. And then for each year that I delayed taking withdrawals, I would get 8%. If I started taking them within a year, I would get $42,925, I think, each year for the rest of my life.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, those numbers don't sound bad at all. I would probably want someone to read the fine print on that who's not, you know, standing to benefit from you taking that policy, just getting a second opinion, because this is a pretty big decision. I mean, I think the only downside to this, assuming you're right, that they are going to add the 30% bonus right up front, and then you're guaranteed 8% a year until you take it. And then when you start taking it, it sounds like they're going to give you about 8% a year. If I'm hearing you correctly, that's 42,000 on 530 grand.

I mean, those are all pretty attractive numbers. There will be surrender penalties if you need to get more than the annual amount each year, especially early in the policy. So that's probably the major downside to this type of approach is you're locking up your money, so to speak, without some pretty significant penalties. So if you needed more than this would allow, then you may have some some trouble there, or it just might be costly to get to it. So where these can be effective is if you have some other funds available, maybe this isn't all of your retirement funds, and you've got an annuity here, but then you've got something else that's a little bit more liquid. That might be one option.

Certainly you'd want to have at least six months expenses outside of this, but I would even love if you have additional assets as well that are a little bit more accessible. But apart from that, I'm not hearing any red flags with regard to the kinds of returns they're talking about, and ultimately, the annuitized payment. Now, are you married, Olive? No, I'm not. Okay. And so this would just be on your life, correct? Correct.

Okay. So do you know what happens to the annuity if you were to pass away? Is there going to be anything available for your heirs? Yeah, whatever is left in the account, and I have a beneficiary, my daughter, she will get it.

Yeah, very good. So I think, you know, perhaps it's worth before you kind of sign on the dotted line, having a certified kingdom advisor there in Pembroke Pines, look over this policy and just make sure there's not anything you're missing. If you wanted to take that step, you could go to faithfi.com. But apart from that, if the annual amount that you'll be bringing in, you know, allows you to alongside Social Security and any other income sources, balance your budget, and perhaps even give you a little bit of margin, then I think, you know, there's something to be said about that. Do you have the ability, though, to delay this for a period of time? I mean, what would you live on after you retire in six months? Oh, yeah, I have leave balances that they will pay me all the time.

So I wouldn't need to touch it for all the next year. Okay. All right. So you can live on other income and then a year from now you'd need to start drawing from this? Correct. And I also have my deferred compensation account. Yeah, you have your deferred comp. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I don't again, I don't see anything right off that is necessarily a negative, as long as you understand that you're not going to have as as much access to the money, especially early without some pretty hefty penalties.

And then I would just want somebody to look over the fine print, make sure you're not missing anything. But apart from that, I think it sounds like a pretty good plan. Congratulations, though. And what are you most looking forward to in this next season of life?

Not waking up at 430 in the morning. I can understand. I would enjoy that as well. All right, Olive. Well, God bless you. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate you being on the program. Let's head up to Indiana, Frankfort, to be specific. Eva, go ahead.

Eva, go ahead. Yeah, I just wondered if my husband retires at age 55, can he work a part time job and still take some money out of his 401k without penalty? Yes, yes, he would be able to.

So you under the rule of 55, if you separate from employment, whether you are laid off, you leave, you retire, as long as you're at least 55, when that happens, then you can start to take withdrawals from the 401k without penalty. They would be taxable, of course. And then he would be able to seek other employment. Okay, what if he got into his part time job and decided to work full time if he started to make more money? Could he still take a little bit out of his 401k? Oh, yeah, yeah.

So you can get a new job and continue to take even a full time job and continue to take the penalty free withdrawals from your former 401k employer, your former employer's 401k under that rule of 55. Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Now, keep in mind, you're just missing the 10% penalty, the withdrawals are going to be taxable. You understand that, correct? Right. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So that 10% penalty under the rule of 55 goes away, and there's no cap or any kind of limitations on another job after you leave the employer with the existing 401k. So just to talk about numbers, say we take out $2,000 a month to supplement our income, how much do we need to set aside for taxes?

Is it about a third? You know, you would probably want to get with a CPA just because you've got a lot of changes going on right now to run that estimate. I mean, it just depends on how much total taxable income you'd have, I would say, you know, 25% would probably be plenty, just based on the current tax brackets, but I don't know how much income you're going to have.

And that's where a CPA could actually run those numbers and give you a much more clear forecast. Okay, that sounds good. Okay. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate you being on.

Well, folks, we made some great headway today covered a lot of ground. You know, folks, as we finish out the program today, let me just invite you to partner with us here at Faith and Finance. This program is brought to you only because of our underwriters and your financial support. As a listener supported ministry, your ability to partner with us as a monthly FaithFi partner or a one-time giver is absolutely critical. And so if you've been blessed by the ministry, maybe you listen regularly.

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Lisa, Dan, Amy, and Jim. We hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.