What does it look like on the surface to be rich? Ever upgrade a perfectly good computer, cell phone, car, or want a larger home? If you answered yes to any of these, then you might be rich and not know it or feel it. We often have a mistaken understanding of wealth. The richer we become the more our priorities separate from our needs. Our needs become relative to our wealth. The more we have the more we spend.

Are you somewhat uncomfortable making the statement that; you are rich? Maybe you don’t feel rich. That’s the other guy with more!

Go to www.globalrichlist.com and enter your salary to see where you rank. Then scroll down to gain perspective. How does it make you feel knowing that not only are you rich, but that you are one of the richest people in the history of the world?

Rich is having extra. Even enough to go to a movie! But you can be rich and not be aware of it. And that’s a problem. There’s a gap between being rich and being good at being rich. If we don’t figure this out we will go through life thinking money is all for us. Where do you turn to for insight and perspective?

Paul who had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, acted as a mentor to a young guy named Timothy. He provides illumination.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

1 Timothy 6:17

A great resource that helps explain this tension, is a new book, CD and DVD called, How To Be Rich by Andy Stanley. It points out the fact that if you make more than $36,000 you are in the top 2% of wage earners in the world. If you make $48,000 then you are in the top 1% of the world’s wage earners.

Everyone can learn to be better managing money, by reading Andy Stanley’s How To Be Rich. Possessing wealth doesn’t necessarily make you good at managing it. Learn how to posses wealth without it possessing you. Some examples of what the book has done for me and my friends.

1. Helps you realize on a global scale you are already rich.

2. Helps you reflect on what to do with what you have.

3. Learn – I will not trust in riches but in Him who richly provides.

4. Remember there’s more to this life than this life.

5. Learn great things grow from living a life of gratitude.

6. Learn it’s not what you have. Its what you do with what you have.

7. Learn how to start acting rich towards others.

Inspiration from this resource will help you learn to look at richness differently. Which leads you to look at the world differently. Feel richer just by reading it. Know what to do with what you’ve been given. Then others will look at you differently.

Attitude            Can you say – out loud –  I am rich?

Action                Order this resource and listen to, read or watch to help you become more strategic and intentional with your money.

Question           Will you look at your finances differently knowing you are rich?

Resource           How To Be Rich: It’s Not What You Have. It’s What You Do with What You Have by Andy Stanley