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When You Can’t Stop Worrying About Money · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Speak: Most of us assume if you just had enough money, the
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  worrying would stop. Hit a certain number in the bank and
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  you'd finally relax. Some researchers decided to test that.
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  They surveyed millionaires, people who were by any normal
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  standard, had already won the money game. If a big pile of
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  money buys peace, these were the guys who should have felt it.
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  The truth was, the number on the account had almost nothing to do
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  with the worry. And what the millionaires admitted points to
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  something most of us get wrong about money. We'll come back to
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  what they said, but
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  first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm
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  Bart Leger. I've worried about money at both ends of the
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  spectrum. In college and grad school, Catherine and I had
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  little to nothing extra. And I worried about the money. Years
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  later, we had more than enough and I still caught myself
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  worrying. The amount in the account changed, but the
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  worrying didn't. Some people have money anxiety that keeps
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  running even when their situation's stable. Calculation
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  never shuts off. Enough for retirement. Enough if the car
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  breaks down. But, what makes it confusing is that nothing's
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  wrong. The bills got paid this month and they'll get paid next
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  month. You've got a little put back and you're still worried
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  you won't have enough. This kind of worry often dresses up as
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  good stewardship. Oh, come on. Admit it. Responsible people
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  plan ahead. And the Bible says plenty about a man who provides
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  for his household. So, we often spiritualize, so we often
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  spiritualize our worry by borrowing that language from the
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  Bible. And it goes unchallenged for years. A prayer in Proverbs
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  goes at money from a different direction most of us never
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  consider. Proverbs 30: 8 and 9. These are the words of Edgar.
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  First, help me never to tell a lie. Oh, that's a pretty good
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  one. And then he goes on to say: Second, give me neither poverty
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  nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I
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  grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" "And if
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  I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
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  Look at how unusual this is. Proverbs is mostly observation
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  and instruction. A wise man telling you how things work.
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  Here, he stops and asks God for something. And what he asks for
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  is the middle. I mean, come on. Nobody prays for the middle. We
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  always pray for more. And then look at his reasons. Because
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  this is where he turns the whole subject around. He gives a
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  spiritual danger for each end. If he gets rich, he's afraid
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  he'll deny God and ask who the Lord even is. If he gets too
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  poor, he's afraid he'll steal. And by doing so, drag God's name
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  through the mud doing it. So, Edgar is treating an amount of
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  money as a spiritual risk. Most of us treat it as a security
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  target. Those are two different questions. And only one of them
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  has an answer. A target can be hit. A risk has to be handed to
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  somebody who can manage it. Look at the request itself. Give me
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  just enough to satisfy my needs. The Hebrew behind that means the
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  bread of my portion or a ration. The amount set aside for a man
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  for one day. Jesus put the same idea in the prayer he taught us.
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  Give us this day our daily bread. Notice who sets the figure in
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  the request. Edgar never states one. He asks God to decide what
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  enough is. Which takes a calculation out of his hands and
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  puts it into God's. That's the move for anybody who's been
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  running this math for years. You've been looking for the
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  number that finally is going to end the worry. "Ager quit
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  looking and he asked God to pick it." Most of the millionaires
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  said they still didn't have enough to feel secure. I mean,
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  really? Nearly two-thirds of them admitted that one bad break
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  – a job loss or a market dip – could wreck the life they'd
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  built. People with more money than they'd ever spend were
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  lying awake doing the same math as everybody else. It turns out
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  money worry doesn't shrink as the bank account grows. It has a
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  life of its own. That's why Ager in Proverbs didn't pray for a
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  bigger pile. He prayed for enough. He prayed for the middle
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  and for a heart that wouldn't be ruled by either having too
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  little or too much. One more detail from that study stands
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  out. When they asked people what it would take to feel secure,
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  the answer kept moving. The ones worth a million to five million
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  said five to ten would do it. And the ones already past ten
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  million said twenty-five. What they found was the target moves
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  with you. That's why a certain number of the bank can't end
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  this. And it's why Ager prayed instead of calculating. Here's
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  today's challenge. Tonight, tell God about your worry. Something
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  like, "Lord, my worry about money is bigger than my
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  situation calls for." And you know it. Then pray Ager's prayer
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  in your own words. Ask God for enough and leave the amount to
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  Him. Then ask Him for something you may never have asked for,
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  and that is peace about the enough He's already given you.
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  And write down the number this week. What you've got and what
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  you owe. Because worry feeds on fog. Most people's fear of the
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  number is worse than the actual number itself. Father, Ager
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  asked for neither poverty nor riches. And he had good reason
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  for this. Thank you that you know what we need before we ask.
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  For everybody listening whose worry about money runs far past
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  their circumstances, please settle them, give them the bread
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  of their portion, and give them rest about it. In Jesus' name,
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  amen. If this episode encouraged you today, would you share it
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  with someone who might need to hear it? Just go to
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  dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/347 and copy the link. It only
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  takes a second, and it might make a difference in someone's
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  day. Thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.
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  Remember, Ager asked God to decide what enough was. You can
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  hand him that calculation tonight. Come back next time for
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  more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.
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  Until then, God bless and have a great day.