Sermon Notes: Women Generating and Managing Wealth

I had a fabulous time sharing on this subject at our women’s service this weekend that I thought I’d share some of it with you guys. Grab your Bible and dig in!

I am one who is very sceptical about money making schemes. I don’t believe in quick money, I subscribe to the motto “easy come easy go.” In recent years many methods of making money have been introduced, different from the traditional means of generating money. I follow discussions and interviews about these new methods and system almost in fear because I’ve seen and heard of people who’ve lost their monies in most of them. But it’s a different story when it comes to hearing God talk about financial issues, simply because to me He is a trusted source and I know that His system will never fail. 

We started off our study by looking at Scriptural evidence that women handled ‘currency’ and were involved in various forms of trading. One would think that in the social context in which biblical women existed in, they wouldn’t be mentioned were currency and wealth was involved seeing how the two are associated with power. But from the Old Testament right into the New Testament we find women at the centre stage of financial situations. I’ll mention three of the nine women we looked at.

The widow with the oil in 2 Kings 4. This women had recently lost her husband who was deep in debt. So she wasn’t only broken but broke too. Her husband’s creditor was threatening to take her two sons as payment for the debt. Fresh from loss, she couldn’t standby and endure more loss. She sought the help of her husband’s boss, the prophet Elisha. Through obedience to divine instruction, God expanded her raw material which she in turn sold in order to settle her debts. This goes to show that God does desire that we be debt free.

The Shunammite in the same chapter. We are told that this women was in good financial standing, not only able to identify the needs of the man of God, but also able to meet them. Working together with her husband, she built Elisha a room in their home. With her resources, she made an investment into God’s Kingdom which God’s servant represented. What happens to her afterwards reveals the return that comes with investing into God’s Kingdom. God met a long dead-and-buried desire she once had to have a child. Not only that, but when she returned to Israel after having left because of the famine that had gripped the land, God makes a way that she get her land back, but not only that, I love what the king says…”Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now” (2 Kings 8:6). This shows that you always get way more than you put in when you invest in God.

The woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5. Because of her condition and the duration of which it lasted, this woman was isolated and we can assume she was unmarried. We are told that she had been to many doctors and had spent all she had trying to get better. So she had money to spend, and she did, until it all ran out. But instead of getting better, she grew worse. Her money hadn’t worked for her, desperate, she turned to Jesus. I loved her story in particular because it shows that money isn’t always the solution; money can never substitute the place of God in our lives. We need to have the wisdom to acknowledge the limitations of money so our lives won’t revolve around it. As Proverbs 23:4 puts it, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.”

From that point, I explored a further nine points related to the generation and management of wealth extracted from Proverbs 31:11-27. The household of the Noble Wife is reflective of many households where both husband and wife contribute towards the generation of wealth. He was part of the governing structure of the town while she was a business woman. Though I am heavily tempted to detour and talk about the issue of finances in the context of marriage, I will avoid.

I picked up a few elements that are important for us women in the process of generating and managing wealth, whether single or married.

1. Effort (“She works with eager hands”; “She sets about her work vigorously”; “she does not eat the bread of idleness”).

You will not make money if you are not willing to work. There are numerous proverbs that warn about laziness as the path leading to poverty such as Proverbs 24:30-34. You will need determination and self-discipline in order to make and keep money. This women was the first to wake up and the last to go to sleep, she had a can-do attitude and she used what she had to get what she needed. We women need to move away from the idea of dependency and having things done for us, we are equally capable like our male counterparts to work and live well. It is true that the ground is not level as statistics indicate that men still get paid more than women of the same or higher position, but that shouldn’t discourage us from pursuing what we are passionate about. 

2. Consideration (“She considers a field and buys it”).

Careful thought needs to be applied in the decisions we take if we are to make money and manage. We need to think more than we feel. We women have retail therapy because shopping is an emotional exercise for us, and that is one of (and the most common of) our downfalls. My therapy (downfall actually) is food, comfort food. So I’m trying to make it a habit to eat before going to town, it helps, a bit. And I’m learning to ask myself ‘Do I really need it?’ every time I pick something up that I feel emotionally attached to. I’ve saved myself many pennies on occasions where I answered the question honestly. 

This woman thought about her next move, she would purchase a field, and from her profit, instead of spending it, she invested it further. That’s proper money management, being careful of what I do next in order to maintain the money I already have. This doesn’t mean never spoiling yourself or ending up stingy, but it emphasises the issue of money being handled with control. I love Dave Meyer’s motto when it comes to how to use money: “Give some, Save some, Spend some.”

3. Involvement (“She watches over the affairs of her household”).

Minding your own business goes a long way in managing your money. When I have my nose in everyone elses business, I do not have the time to focus on building my own empire. I will start competing with people who aren’t even competing with me, buying things not because I need them or even want them but just because so-and-so has them or because its trending. I need to stay in my lane if I am to manage my wealth well. I need to avoid be pressurized by what others are doing with their money and set my own financial goals to meet at my own pace. Many have gone way in over their head in debt trying to keep up with a so called standard. Baby girl, you are the standard with your undone nails, natural coils and Mr Price outfit, these slay queens are a myth. 

I hope you were blessed as I was by this. I hope you realize that it’s a mistake to act recklessly with money in the name of trusting God. As much as God will bless us beyond our storage places, we need to have storage in place in the first place.