Thursday 24 November 2016

The Effect of Money on Marriage

Good morning wonderful people of God. It’s another wonderful day and another wonderful reason to be grateful to the most high King. The God who has blessed us with His breathe today and made us wake to the see the raising of the sun and enjoy the dawn of a new day. He is the God who has blessed us with His word again today so that our lives and marriages can be more beautiful and fulfilled.

So in today’s post I want us to look at Marriage and Money. It’s a topic that I know has been touched on on this blog, but still there are more to say about it. Money they say is the root of all evil and to say that money has caused deep rift and distrust in many homes is to say the least and anything that is causing a crack in marriages is worth discussing over and over again until we have totally gotten reed of it. Just like the need to continually have immunization programs until the attacking disease is completely eradicated. So we will always have something to talk about until there is a significant increase in the level of successful marriages.

A lot of men are of the opinion that once their wives are wealthier than they are, she automatically stops being submissive to them. Men feel that when a woman becomes rich, she becomes proud and uncontrollable. This ideology has prevented a lot of men from helping their wives grow in enterprise or her endeavor in making wealth.

In some other cases some men get relaxed in fulfilling their financial responsibilities to the home once they know that their wives are financially capable of bearing the burden of the home. So they stop to provide for the home and let their wives do it and some even go to the extent of collecting money from their wives to fulfill their personal lust.

On the other hand quite a handful of wives are of the opinion that the financial responsibility of the home belongs to their husband and they have no part in it, and so whether they are financially buoyant or not their husband must drop the money for all that needs to be done in the home, they really don’t care or want to know whether he has it or not. Whichever way he knows to get money he should, just as long as he is meeting up with all the demands and spends of the family.    

Now, in as much as we know that God said in 1 Timothy 5:8 that if anyone does not provide for his family he has denied the faith and worse than an unbeliever which we have conveniently interpreted to mean if a man does not provide for his family he is worse than an unbeliever, we need to also note that Proverbs 31:12-23 shows us how active a wife of noble character is in meeting the financial needs of her family.

I agree that the man is the head of the home, he should rightly be the head in making finances available to the ones that God has pleased under him to care for, but even the head needs support. He cannot do it alone. The financial needs of the home is the responsibility of the husband with the support and help of his wife.

Whatever you do in life is a seed sown that germinates and produces fruits in multiples of what was sown and that includes taking responsibility for the financial needs of your home. The secret in doing this is that the one who gives gets replenished in multiples of what he/she has given. A husband who takes care of the financial responsibility of his family will surely get replenished and that which he has given will be given back in multiple folds. Jesus said in Luke 6:38 that “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Now this passage does not only apply to giving to Churches and God’s work outside of your home. It includes the giving to meet the needs of your home. So a man who gives to meet the needs of his home will have a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over poured into his lap by God. And this also applies to the wife who has been assigned by God as the suitable helper second in command of the home. She is the neck that holds the head in place, the heartbeat through which the whole body functions well, including the head.

I will say a man who provides for his family is a man who has learned the secreting of prosperity, because God will always pour into his lap in the measure with which he has given. But I thank God because the wisdom of God cannot be measured, His plans for the man cannot be comprehended in any way. God knows that there will be times of dry valleys in the life of the man who is the head, He knows that there will be times when business will go bad and/or the man will lose his job and unable to meet up with his financial responsibilities to his family. He knows that there will be times that though the spirit of the man will be willing to give but his pocket will be dry. And against such times He has provided for him a suitable helper in the wife of his youth, who is talented, equipped and gifted to work and earn income to support with the finances of the home until the man is able to get back on his feet. What a wonderful God we serve.

The husband and his wife are to complement each other in every way and even in financing their home and not compete with one another. A man whose wife is doing great in her endeavor and getting good income should encourage her because she is God’s fall back plan for him when things get slightly unfavorable. She is not his competitor in any way, but God’s back up for him. Also the man should not use his wife’s wealth as an excuse for him to run away from his responsibility as a man, if he does he walk foolishly into the devil's plan of poverty and lack for his life. Remember that it is the measure with which he gives that will be given back to him. If he gives little, he gets a multiple of little, if he gives nothing, he gets a multiple of nothing and if he gives much he gets a multiple of much.

Now for the woman, you have so much wealth and everything working for you not because you are so righteous, but because God is storing up in your account a serve for your family when it is needed. This is not an excuse for you to be proud and look down on your husband. Your wealth has not made you the head of your husband. Rich or poor, the man is still the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. The rules of giving as we have seen in Luke 6:38 applies to you also. The more you give the more you receive. Jesus tells us in Luke 16:10-12 that “Whoever can be trusted with very little will also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Try read the rest up). God has entrusted you with wealth, are you showing Him that you are worthy of that trust? Humiliating your husband with money and pride does not in any way show that God can trust you with very little. And you can imagine what God has in mind when He refers to what you consider much as very little.

I do not in any way mean to say that a wife should take up the responsibility of the breadwinner of the family because she has more money than her husband. The husband still holds the responsibility of the breadwinner of his family as long as he is earning income. But if and when he needs help, you as his wife are the God given helper that has been placed in his life to help him and God has equipped you to play that role sufficiently well, so it depends on you.

I am just praying that the seed of the word of God shared in this place is germinating in the marriages and lives of many people. I pray that the Lord bless our homes in Jesus name. 

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