Your Money and Your Life #2: The Character Foundation, Righteousness

We often don’t associate wealth with character. It could be the starlet of the week who has been destroyed by the fatal cocktail of wealth and fame because there isn’t the maturity or character to stand up under it or corporate scandal that defrauds thousands of stockholders – also painfully routine. Proverbs agrees: “The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin” (10:16). The next few posts will look at the character that God says lives well with wealth. In this one we’ll look at righteousness.

Proverbs 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
Proverbs 28:6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

Wealth is a tool. A powerful tool. It is deadly in the hands of the wicked, life-giving in the hands of the righteous. It is clear what we should strive for.

Righteousness isn’t easy, but it isn’t a mystery. It is a matter of submitting to God as He reveals Himself in Scripture, relating to Him in prayer and obeying Him in that, and submitting to other believers in community. Not easy. But there’s a clear path God has laid out for us.

How do you cultivate righteousness in your life as a believer? How does it affect your finances?