Here are 6 ways Satan keeps a man poor.
1. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him to Believe Money Is Bad
Satan is not sovereign, so he can’t just will you to be poor as though he were like God. Rather, in most cases, for Satan to accomplish his desires in your life, he must tempt you to make choices that would lead to that outcome.
Also, as a quick point of clarification, Satan is not omnipresent. So he can’t be tempting all of us at the same time. Rather, when I say that Satan is doing something, I mean that either a demon that is ranked below him is involved or some sort of evil system in the world that involves lost people following Satan’s lies is tempting you (Ephesians 2:1-3). But I digress.
Thus, to keep men poor, Satan will tempt a man to believe that money is evil. When a man has an inner shame about making a lot of money, he is very likely to pursue other desires that will lead him away from wealth. While that could be God’s will for that man, it isn’t wrong for a man to become wealthy. In many cases, God wants a man to have much more money than he currently does.
Money is a tool. In the right hands, it can be used to accomplish very good things. 1 Timothy 6:10 does not condemn money. It condemns the love of money. Likewise, 1 Timothy 6:17-19 doesn’t condemn rich people. Rather, it warns them not to put their hope in riches, but to enjoy these gifts from God and to use them for good purposes that glorify the Lord.
When a man wrongly believes money is bad, he will usually possess a lot less money than he could have if he understood the spiritual value of money rightly managed.
2. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him to Believe Wealth Is Given Rather than Earned
The vast majority of millionaires did not inherit their money. They did not become wealthy due to racial or social privileges. Rather, they usually had other privileges that Satan wants you to know nothing about. Wealthy people usually gain knowledge that poorer people never get.
It’s not about another rich person giving you money. Rather, to become wealthy, you usually need to learn how to make money from someone who has also learned how to make money. Satan keeps men poor because he tempts us to think some men were just born into the right family, were given the right genetic makeup, or have some social benefit that we don’t have.
Sure, in some instances, men become wealthy for reasons like these. But the vast majority of wealthy people have learned principles and a work ethic that people with less money simply don’t possess. And the main reason wealthy people sometimes come from wealthy families is not inheritance, but rather that wealthy parents modeled wealth-building principles for their children, preparing them to become wealth-building adults themselves.
As long as you have the victim mindset and assume wealth is given rather than earned, you will always have fewer resources than you could have.
Proverbs 14:23, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”
3. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him to Have Debt
Proverbs 22:7, “. . . the borrower is the slave of the lender.”
Comparison is the mother of all unhappiness. When you look at what others have and you want it now, the world will be happy to manipulate this desire in you for their own benefit. It’s called debt. When you borrow to buy what you can’t afford, you will never gain real wealth.
Additionally, credit fosters a mindset of sinful consumption by cheapening the path to acquiring possessions. In other words, when you buy something with money you have, you will always value that item much more. Proverbs 21:20, “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.”
4. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him with Worldly Women
When you read about the godly wife described in Proverbs 31, you might be surprised by how much she is contributing to the financial well-being of her household. Not only is she making choices that multiply their resources, but she is also wisely using these resources as a good household manager.
Thus, it’s no surprise that while godly women create an environment for a man’s wealth to increase, worldly women always decrease a man’s wealth. They spend frivolously, they always want more, and they are entitled – all of which create an environment for poverty.
Not to mention the high financial cost of divorce. Few things can devastate a man’s wealth like a worldly woman.
Proverbs 14:1 (NIV), “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”
5. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him to Boast About Tomorrow
How you live your life will be how you spend your days. Life is not mainly about the big moments. It’s about the collection of all the small moments. Talking about your future dreams too much can tempt you to stop working towards them.
In other words, telling people what you plan to do gives you unwarranted praise, which steals your motivation to actually do what you are talking about. For example, if you want to be a doctor but you are in your first year of college, telling people you are going to be a doctor will give you responses like, “Oh, wow! That’s really impressive! I could never do that.” Those types of comments feel good and boost your ego. But the fact is, you haven’t become a doctor and you have an incredible amount of work to do. Don’t talk about it. Be about it.
James 4:13, 15-17, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.’ . . . Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
6. Satan Keeps a Man Poor By Tempting Him to Be Dishonest
Proverbs 11:1 (NIV), “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.”
When a man really wants to be rich, he is easily tempted into dishonesty. Ironically, dishonest men rarely get rich. And if they do, their wealth rarely lasts. Why? Because eventually, your character always causes you to reap what you sow.
Proverbs 10:2-4, “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
