A few years back, I came across an interesting interview with Arthur Brooks, a professor at Harvard Business School. In the interview, he shared research showing four ways to use money that lead to feelings of lasting happiness and one way that does not. The four things that Brooks says are proven to bring you happiness are: buying experiences, buying time, saving money, and giving it away. The one thing you can do with money that will not lead to feelings of lasting happiness is buying stuff. Of course, as Christians, we know that temporal happiness is far outweighed by the eternal weight of the glory we are being prepared to experience. Therefore, transient happiness is not our end goal.

Knowing this is pretty eye-opening when you think about the times you’ve been tempted to buy something. Deep down, even though it will practically meet a need or help you solve a problem, you have also probably attached a certain degree of future happiness to this thing. In time, it will break, need to be fixed, or become the bane of your existence because it doesn’t deliver what you expected it to.

This was personally helpful to check my own heart on a practical level. But it has also led to something I’ve been stewing on ever since: whether or not science says a use of money leads to lasting happiness, all five uses can, and should, be done to the glory of God. While it is foundational to see kingdom giving as an act of worship and display of love to God (2 Corinthians 9:10-15), wouldn’t it be helpful to think about our saving and spending as worship, not just stewardship?

Romans 11:33-12:2 gives some perspective on this matter. Paul is writing about the gift of God’s grace in salvation, but the passage also applies to our wallets.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
     “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
          or who has been his counselor?”
     “Or who has given a gift to him
          that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. 
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 11:33-12:2)

If we are to present our bodies as an offering to God in response to his immeasurable riches, knowledge, and wisdom in saving us, that means offering our whole selves, including our minds and our possessions. Psalm 24:1 states, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Everything belongs to God, so whether we buy something or receive it as a gift—we never truly own anything—it is all his. This is where it is easy to think about stewardship, but it is helpful to go a step further.

We don’t worship only with our giving: we can worship in the way we give, save, and spend. We give generously to glorify God and support our pastors, those in our church, other ministries, the needy, and wherever else God provides an opportunity. We save not to hoard money for a lavish future, but to care for our family, create future opportunities for ministry and giving, and for other unforeseen (to us) emergencies and opportunities. We spend not as a replacement for fulfillment in Christ alone, but as a provision and blessing all to his glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Don't for one second think worshipful giving creates an excuse for excessive saving or spending. Just because you gave your firstfruits doesn’t mean you can hoard the rest of the harvest.

You are called to present yourself as a living sacrifice. Are you worshiping God with your giving, saving, and spending? Or are you just checking boxes, looking for happiness in the wrong places, while you’re offered everlasting joy in the pursuit of faithful obedience and worship to the one true King of heaven and earth? As John Piper has stated, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” We have an opportunity to live this out by using all of our financial resources to worship our great God, not just a certain percentage of what he has provided for us.