I’ve been studying the book of Proverbs a lot this week as I prepare to preach on financial wisdom from this book on Sunday.

All of the financially sound advice men give today is based on what was written long ago in God’s word.   Any wisdom man can share on this subject is truly wise because it comes from the Bible, God’s wisdom.  Solomon gives us four imperatives in the book of Proverbs to be a good financial manager of the money God entrusts to us.   Notice:

1. Prioritize: Honor God first and seek to help others who are in need (3:9-10; 14:31; 17:5; 21:13).

2. Plan: develop a budget and live within it (21:5) — this involves living within your means (21:17), living below your means (13:7), watching wasteful spending (18:9), and refusing to live on borrowed money (22:7).

3. Produce: work for what you get (28:19; 10:4) — this involves working hard (14:4), working hard over time (avoiding get-rich-schemes 13:11; 28:20), and working honestly (13:11).

4. Preserve: do what you can to save now for the future (13:22) — including saving for emergencies, retirement and investment, and children’s inheritances.

All of this is important, because we are merely stewards of the blessings God bestows.   One day, we will give an account of our stewardship (Luke 16:2).

I’m convinced that many of us may not resist the temptation to sin as we should. It’s not that we want to sin, for we don’t. It’s just that when temptation crosses our path, we don’t fight it as though we were in a life or death struggle. We may resist, but the resistance is only token.

Some time ago, a friend of mine gave a lecture in which he raised this question: What if every time we sinned, an ugly scar appeared upon our face? How much harder then would we resist sin? Good question. None of us would like to have our faces scarred. Scars to our faces would be embarrassing, affect our relationships, and would affect our behavior. I’m sure we would tenaciously fight the temptation of sin if succumbing meant a big ugly scar to our faces.

You see where I’m going, right? Why would we fight harder to preserve our temporal flesh than we would to preserve our eternal soul? The fact that we can’t see the “scars” sin leaves upon us doesn’t mean they’re not there. Friends, resist the temptation to sin; not just a token resistance before you succumb, but a resistance that reflects a life and death struggle!