I was speaking with a man yesterday, who told me that his pastor had taught him, that money was the root of all evil.

Gary was so convinced that money was in fact the root of all evil, that each month he would pay all his bills and give all his remaining money to his church. I asked Gary, “So you are a Satanist then?”, and he was shocked and adamantly told me that he was not and that he was a devout Christian.

So I asked him, “If, as your pastor teaches you, money is the root of all evil, why would you give this burden of evil to your church, unless of course you wanted your church to be evil”.

Gary still didn’t get my point, and he continued to argue the case that his church was Godly. He told me how his church had set up a soup kitchen to feed the hungry and gave blankets to the homeless in the winter.

I replied, “Gary, if money is the root cause of all evil, do you believe that if you had money it would make you evil?” He said yes. I continued, “Then by the same logic if you give money to your pastor, it would make him evil. If you give money to people who have no money, it would make them evil. But I think you already realize that this is not true”

That converstaion with Gary is what inspired me to write the following article:

Money is neither good nor evil. It is a form of appreciation. If you do something for me, I express my appreciation to you in the form of money. If you had a tangible item and I wanted it, I would appreciate you with money in exchange for the item.

While money itself is neither good nor evil, it does increase the appreciation of the person who has it. A greedy person will become greedier and a generous person will have more to share. A bragger will have more to brag about and a humble man will appear even more humble.

You can not help a needy person by remaining needy yourself. You can not clothe or feed a homeless child by having no money. If you refuse to allow yourself to have money in your life, then you will never have the ability to help others substantially in this world.

Most people do not actively give their money away like Gary, but most people are pushing money away from themselves because they think that owning money, especially large sums of money, is somehow bad. There is nothing bad about having money. You must realize this on the deepest level if you want abundance to flow into your life.

Having money is good. Having a lot of money is even better. It’s abundance. If you believe in God, you believe in abundance, because God is the source of all abundance. Abundance is Godly. Abundance feels good. Abundance empowers you to change the world around you. It lets you help others in ways that living in lack would never allow you to do.

If you earned $100,000 a month, imagine all the good that you would do, not only to yourself and your family, but to the starving children around the world. You could feed the hungry, plant more trees, pay for cleaning up your local neighborhood, shelter the homeless, fund medical treatment for the needy, or anything else you desired. The amount of good you can do is only limited by the amount of money that you have.

Now contrast that with earning just enough to get buy. Can you help feed hungry children around the world now? No. Can you have trees planted or pay for cleaning up your neighborhood? No. What about funding medical treatment for the needy or sheltering the homeless? No. In fact, all you can do is donate some time somewhere, but you can not reach out and actively change the world without money.

Now, contrast both of these with not having enough money to even pay your bills. Can you help anyone in any way? NO. In fact, you will most likely become a burden to society when you are forced to apply for food stamps or some form of welfare. Now everyone else is paying higher taxes to pay for your belief that money is bad.

Do you think living a life of lack is Godly? NO. God lives in abundance and God supplies others with abundance. Abundance doesn’t take, it gives. Having money enables a good person to do more good. There is nothing evil about doing good around the world, or in your own back yard. Helping others is only possible when you can help yourself first.

I teach people to become a money magnet. The first thing that one needs to learn to become a money magnet is to learn the art of allowing. Most people who come to me are actively pushing money away from them. You must stop pushing money away from you and learn to allow money to flow into your life. Contrary to popular belief, money can come to you frequently and easily if you simply master the art of allowing.