God Has a Daily Budget for You

What the Bible really says about abundance, contentment and asking with the right motive

When Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah, He said something I keep coming back to: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:18). The gospel, the good tidings, preached to the poor.

I've often asked myself, what would be good news to a poor person, if not abundance? If not a better life?

That question sits right at the heart of this teaching. In my last message I talked about the primary provisions we have in Christ: forgiveness, healing, divine health, the Holy Spirit, every spiritual blessing and access to the Father. Today I want to talk about what I call the secondary provisions. I don't call them secondary because they're unimportant. I call them secondary because they grow out of the primary ones. The primary provisions are the foundation, and these are built on top of it. If you don't have the foundation, you can't walk in what rests on it.

Abundance is not a heap of money

Let me say this clearly, because it's often misunderstood. Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

Abundance doesn't necessarily mean a heap of money. It means sufficiency: everything you need to fulfil the purpose God has given you. It means money doesn't set the boundary for your life. Finances don't decide what you can or can't do for God.

Paul puts it beautifully: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Notice why we abound: to every good work. Not to our lusts. The purpose of God's sufficiency is the work He's called us to.

I also want to be honest. Receiving Christ doesn't always mean an instant, total change in your bank account. Something changes in your spirit immediately, and it begins to affect your mind as you stay in the Word (Romans 12:2) and keep your mind stayed on God (Isaiah 26:3). As you do, transformation comes, and you begin to see the fruit of the righteousness you've received, even financially.

At the same time, there's a place for contentment. "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6). Paul learned both how to abound and how to be abased. Abundance and contentment aren't enemies. They walk together.

1. Your daily bread

Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11).

Think about what that means. There is a budget for you. There is an allocation set aside for you as a child of God, every single day.

We see this pictured in the wilderness. God rained down manna on Israel daily, and He told them to gather only what they needed for that day. Every morning there was fresh provision. David said, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits" (Psalm 68:19).

You don't have to wake up anxious about whether God remembers you. Your daily bread is already budgeted.

2. Your physical needs

When the church at Philippi met Paul's physical needs, sending him real, material help, he prayed for them and wrote, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

The needs he was talking about there were physical, not just spiritual. When we walk with God, partner with Him and serve Him, He takes care of our physical needs.

And you don't have to be a pastor, apostle or prophet for that to be true. You don't have to live inside the church building. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). If you're called by His name and you've received eternal life, God has made provision for you to live. You can't have an abundant life if your basic needs aren't met, so He has covered them.

3. Riches

Here's the verse that turns things around: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

This isn't only talking about spiritual riches. On the cross, Jesus took every result of sin: sickness, lack, poverty, emotional distress, depression, every negative thing you can think of. He became poor so that you wouldn't have to stay poor.

So poverty is not your cross to carry. It isn't the will of God for you.

But I have to be just as clear about this: it isn't automatic. If you don't work with God's principles, the enemy will fight to keep you down. You have to renew your mind. You partner with God and trust Him with your finances, and that's part of what we do with tithes and offerings. And you work, because God blesses the work of your hands.

A hundredfold, but not of zero

The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, walked in a hundredfold blessing, and as children of faith we have that by default. But a hundredfold has to multiply something. A hundred times zero is still zero.

Seedtime and harvest is a principle that works for everyone, believer or not. Sow ten seeds and you might reap twenty. But as a believer, you carry a multiplier. A hundredfold is a 10,000% increase. That's a lot! So give God something to multiply.

How do you know you're not asking amiss?

Now, you might be thinking: if these provisions cover everything, where's the line? James says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3). How do I know my request isn't coming from lust?

The answer starts with love, and at the center of love is motive. Why do you want what you want? What's the end goal of the thing you're praying for?

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

Let me give you an example. Is it good to have a car? Yes. It helps you get around. But why do you want one? Is it because you've reached a point where you really need it? Or is it because someone close to you just bought one, their status went up, and now you want to match them?

Here in Nigeria, we can be very class conscious. People do things to prove a point and to show they're bigger or better. But a Christian shouldn't live like that. "They measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise" (2 Corinthians 10:12). We're called to a simple, purposeful life.

Desires born from comparison, jealousy or bitterness don't come from your spirit. Your spirit is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and it's holy. Those desires come from a mind that hasn't been renewed yet. The goal is for your mind to line up with your spirit, because "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) and "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

So here are some honest questions to ask yourself, taken from the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:

• Am I asking from a place of envy?
• Am I asking for self-promotion?
• Is the love of God my motive?

That last one doesn't mean you need a spiritual reason to buy groceries. It means your whole life is lived for God, to carry out the mission He's given you. When that's your reason for being here, your requests line up with it.

The takeaway

God has a daily budget for you. He supplies your physical needs. Jesus became poor so that you could be rich, not so you can show off, but so you can have all sufficiency for every good work. Renew your mind, put your hands to work, trust God with your finances, and check your motive.

Abundance and contentment aren't opposites. In Christ, they belong together.

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God bless you,
Michael Adegoke