An interesting fact from the Bible is that the word Faith is written about 500 times. Also, Prayer is discussed about 500 times. But money is mentioned about 2350 times. It appears that God is very concerned about how we use the money He has given us.
Luke wrote about how the first church in Jerusalem was so generous with their land and money to take care of those in need. (Acts 4) Many of the Christians sold their land and gave the money to the apostles to take care of the poor. He told about one couple, Ananias and his wife Saphira who sold their land intending to give all the money to the apostles. But as they thought about it, they decided to give only part of the money but tell the apostles that they had given it all. Peter said to Ananias,
“You kept part of the money for yourself and lied about it to the Holy Spirit. Before you sold the field, it belonged to you, right? And even after you sold it, you could have used the money any way you wanted….You lied to God…” (Acts 5:1-6).
The part that we need to notice is where Peter told Ananias that the land and money was his to use as he wanted. The money we have is placed in our hands and we must decide how to use it.