Money mentality; Money is to be conquered!!!

She immediately caught my attention the moment she made that statement in class " Money can help you have long life" and I had to cut the silent gist between  I and my friend to tell him " I really believe in that" a similar thought line that I had been nursing for a long time but have been scared to say it out because I thought people would not understand or want to give it a consideration or I left it because it was controversial, but only once have I dared to speak to Dad about it and luckily enough he was open minded enough to understand and throw more light and even gave me a more clearer analysis....
* Here is my own thought ; "I sincerely believe that there are spending that do not necessarily take away from us and at extreme that certain spending has the potential to save your life"--- I'm not talking about the aspect of life now but I want to talk of the ability to spend money in such a way that imparts you.
          I still ultimately believe its a gift from God to really understand money, how to handle it, how not to be attached to it. I believe its God's will that we His children should be masters over money and not fall into the traps and deceit of money, that we understand that its just a means to an end and never an end in itself.
* I think its worthy of note how that Jesus compared the inability of the steward to manage his master's money as being a servant to that money and not his master also note how he points out that its our show of mastery over money that brings more money and not our foolish notion of accumulating  it
Just as our Lord desires that many things do not take our mind away from Him, He also emphasis the need to detach ourselves  from our earthly possessions ( I'm looking at money ) when the Bible tells us " The LOVE of MONEY is the root of evil". I believe what our Lord meant is for us to show ourselves masters over money thereby proving to Him that He truly is our master. Does this mean that by detachment we should be poor? No!!! In fact it means you should take hold of wealth and putting it to work.

#There are certain ways/ key Financial intelligence practices we can begin with to prove ourselves masters of the wealth God has given us;
*Tithing; This is one-tenth of your income. This is commanded by your God, the one you claim to serve. Its a way you honor Him and tell Him Lord I love you more than all of these, Lord I do this because I know your value in my life. We get into the lie of thinking the money won't be enough after removing the tithe, but its never true. Understand this, your tithe is your no1 security over the money God has given to you. Its given to you by God and if He asks for that little I think its just because He doesn't wants you to become so attached or He wants to continually prove to you that He is your provider. John D. Rockefeller who is one of the richest men in the American history practiced this from the age of sixteen
* Giving; To the furtherance of the gospel of Christ, to the needy, the orphans and widows and charity. Giving is a channel of blessing and also another way of practicing mastery over money and wealth. You want to be open to more wealth, then give. We have been caught in the deceit of thinking that giving drains or cuts our portion, but giving in these manner doesn't. Its worthy to note the scriptures 2 Cor 9; 8- God will continually bless you so you can give more, 2 Cor  9; 10- you don't grow dry by giving because God gives you seed for giving, gives you separate seeds for eating, multiply the seed He gave you to sow and increase your opportunities to do more good works. You don't go dry when you give this way. Its also another one of God's strategy to check us up against attachment to the wealth He gave us. It's another mastery point
*Saving: The Bible tells us that its foolishness to spend all that we get. It's a self discipline that also connote your mastery over money. Take out a fifth part to save. A wisdom the Lord has given to the ant.
*Putting money to work/ Investing; Money is not the goal, you are. The money God has blessed us with is not to worsen our lives or to enslave us, its to better our lives, its for us to increase our influence for the sake kingdom advancement, to do good works that the world might glorify God for our sakes. The money should be invested in acquisition of skills and other self development projects, taking your talents to a professional level, invest in another person's life, life and world changing projects   
    John D. Rockefeller one of the richest men in the American history  saw the importance of this and even Andrew Carnagie saw the need to view our wealth acquisition as a privilege and ourselves as stewards put in charge. To master money is simply to understand that money we are blessed with is not just for our selfish pleasure, but to glorify the one you serve. To conquer money is to be as detached, independent on its presence or absence, it doesn't define you, instead your person can command and generate wealth!!