It all depends what you depend in!

Probing Proverbs 11:28 Trust in your money and down you go! But the godly flourish like leaves in spring.

One of the great men of God was brother D.L. Moody. A favorite verse of his was:

Isaiah 12:2  “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”

He used to say, "You can travel to Heaven first-class or second-class. First-class is, I will trust and not be afraid. Second-class is, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee!”

The word “trust” and its concept are used throughout the Scriptures. Many times we miss the point of a Scripture because it deals with an issue that we are over sensitive about. This Proverb is an example of that. Most people that read this Proverb would think it is about money, which this includes, but that is not the main point. The reason for this is that we humans really have a hard time balancing what Scripture teaches about money and our desire for it, thinking that it brings security.

We humans tend to swing the pendulum concerning money too far to the left or too far to the right. Many believe God hates money, and that money is evil. Others, and I'm sad to say, many are famous individuals claiming to be representing God, act as though God's greatest gift to us is money and He is committed to give us whatever we demand as long as we attach the name “Jesus Christ” to it, or believe that our words speak the wealth into existence.

Let's deal with these two concepts first. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that God hates money, also money is a neutral item in the Scripture. It carries no inherent evil. Instead, what the Scripture warns is our heart’s approach towards money. This is one of those areas where God's Word speaks very clearly in black and white terms.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Money is not the source of evil; it is our heart’s craving and lust for it. The health, wealth, and prosperity movement have propagated the other side of the pendulum. Men and women who love money so much that they go out and teach everybody that God wants everyone to be rich and they can have as much as they desire.

Firstly, that is a complete lie from Scripture and is even confronted in Proverbs through a prayer that expresses the proper balance that God desires.

Proverbs 30:8–9 First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

Notice, it states “needs” not desires!

Secondly, without exception these preachers and teachers heap the riches they receive from the thousands that flock to them upon themselves, and live a lifestyle that exposes their lust for money. 

Tragically, the vast majority of those that send money cannot afford it, but do so because they themselves are afflicted with greed and believe the lie that these teachers have so skillfully taught, that if you give your money to God then He will bless you with all that you want. Now just to be clear, let me state it the way they do: “if you sow your seed of faith, God will give you a hundred fold harvest.” Now let me tell you what that really means: “if you send your money to me, I will keep it and you can wait for God to give you what you want, I do not wait on God, I get what I want from you!”

Scripture sets out the standard and the warning for this issue when it comes to His leaders.

1 Timothy 3:2–3  An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,  not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.

2 Timothy 3:1–2 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2 Peter 2:1–3 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

So let's return to this Proverb. The real issue of this Proverb is the idea of “trust”, not money. God is warning us about depending on anything or anyone other than Him, and in this case He is using money as an example.

As I stated, trust is used throughout the Scripture along with other words that convey the same concept. When we place our dependency on God hoping only in Him, and believing that He alone is going to be the One that delivers us either from trouble or toward that which we desire, that is what it means to trust. Scriptures are replete with stories and examples of individuals who trusted in something or someone other than God, and in every circumstance there was a fall or destruction.

Here's what we need to understand about Biblical teaching of trusting God. It does not mean that if you trust God you will get exactly what you want, for we know that many times we want things that later if we had seen were not good for us. God, Who does see all, will protect us from that if we are trusting in Him. So when we say that we trust in God and He will, “lead”, “bless”, “deliver” or whatever other word we might put in there, we need to understand that the context of that word is that God will do what we’re trusting in as He sees is best for us and will bring out the greatest outcome which will, first, glorify Him and secondly, satisfy our soul. This concept of trust does not sell well with the greed of the health wealth and prosperity preachers, but it is the truth and one who follows it will find that God is absolutely committed to His Word. When we trust in Him, the outcome that we will experience is guaranteed to be what is best for us because God is glorified when those He created experiences His fullness.

Meditation: What do you really depend on for satisfaction in this life? What areas in your life right now are you frustrated about? Why? What does that frustration show? What areas of your life are you experiencing fears? Why? What does that show? What could you do right now that would allow the Spirit of God to teach you how to really trust the Lord? Have you trusted the God Who made you when it comes to where you will spend eternity?