Saying "Money and Material Things Won't Matter When We Die" is a BIG Lie

Of course they matter, and they matter a lot! This early in the article I want to make that clear. Everything GOD gives us matters even after we die. All blessings matter, material or spiritual, during or after we die, because GOD designed life to require their use. 

Photo by Anthony Fomin on Unsplash.

Saying money and material things won't matter when we die is like saying God's blessings have become useless just because we're dead. So before you feel super-spiritual and declare something like this, think 10 times first, because God will do to us as we profess with our lips. 

So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say. [Numbers 14.28]

Why It Matters

Be honest, realistic and practical. After we die we need to be placed in a presentable casket and given a decent burial. That spells money, lots of it. Before that, we may need to be hospitalized. Being rushed to the ER and taken to the ICU cost a lot, to say the least. And if you have kids, they need to move on and continue with life. It will be a good thing to leave them some money or property.

1. First, imagine if you're renting an apartment and your kids are still schooling and you suddenly die. They're going to be homeless and penniless after you're gone. The best scenario is having them live with relatives or friends, which to me is really worse. Thus, the money and material things you leave them will mean a lot.

2. Leave them money along with happy memories instead of being sad, broke and displaced. Among the first things your loved ones need is new environment even for a short time, a staycation somewhere quiet to unload stress and depression, think things over and find meaning again. These things help a lot to overcome grief but they cost something. If you leave money behind, your family can afford them and easily find relief.

3. They need to cope financially. If they don't, imagine what terrible misery that is. In case you aren't able to leave them anything (and sometimes God allows that for a purpose) there's still comfort in knowing God will never forsake them because he is faithful to answer your prayers--so it's doubly important to invest enough prayers for them while you're alive. Believe me it's a sure and worthy investment. 

But God is a practical God, aside from supernatural. If he gives us the ability to create wealth, we should consider providing for the material needs of our family, not just spiritual, now and when we're gone. It's smart to buy them investment-linked insurance policies if you can. 

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

[1 Timothy 5.8]

4. Nothing is certain in life. How do you know everything will be smooth sailing now and in the future for your family just because you have a stable job or business? Or, just because you're spiritual and serving the Lord? Abraham and Isaac were wealthy and faithful to the Lord and yet Jacob fell slave to Laban. Everything was going well for Job, a rich and righteous man, and then tragedy struck without warning. 

Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life. [Ecclesiastes 7.14]

If both prosperity and hard times come from God, then it's more obvious how investment prayers are vital, not just prayer for grace and mercy so your family will cope when you're gone but for wealth creation now while you're alive and have something to set aside for your family's future. Why do you do this? Because God has already hinted how nothing is certain in life. He says this in Ecclesiastes so we can be wise and act now.

Stop being religious and pretend that money and material things mean nothing to you. They do, but your ego wants to show off and make you spiritually superior than others. 

5. Money is a good servant. Make money serve you. God designed it to keep your life convenient and free from the love of money. You love money if you don't make it your servant.

Through laziness, the rafters sag;
because of idle hands, the house leaks.

19 A feast is made for laughter,
wine makes life merry,
and money is the answer for everything. [Ecclesiastes 10]

The passage hints how lack of money is often (not always) due to laziness, so that the rafters sag and the roof leaks. But making money the answer (making it serve you) results to a happy and full life. Yup, God is practical, too. A lot about life will be smoother with money, with sagging rafters and leaking roofs easily fixed, so to say. That's God's design for money.

When is Money Bad?

Obviously, money and material things become bad when we see them in a carnal light. Primarily, if you let money control and deceive you, making you its slave, so that God's Word no longer have first, middle and last place in your life, then money becomes useless when we die--God will make sure of that.

...but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. [Mark 4.19]

Second, if you love money and wander away from true faith.

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. [1 Timothy 6.9-10]

Be sure of this: poverty is not God's will and it does not get you closer to God. Neither are riches and wealth. Doing God's will does. And belittling God's blessings, whether spiritual or material (saying they don't matter), won't do you any good, whether here or in heaven.