Randell Tiongson shared an article he wrote for the Inquirer in answer to this question: "I have heard from other believers that I shouldn't be concerned with saving because I should depend on the Lord for provisions by faith. Are they wrong?" I asked Randell for permission to react and so I would like to add my opinion here.
To have faith is to trust the Lord, to be dependent on Him. But it also means to obey the Lord, to live according to the commandments He gave. The latter is the part of faith that most people take for granted.
I believe the first commandment God gave man is found in Genesis 1:28 when He told him to be "fruitful." And in order for man to do this, God planted a garden and told him to cultivate and keep it. The reason why he needed to cultivate the garden is because if he does not, it will become barren and empty. While to cultivate and keep can be interpreted in other ways, I have learned that this also means to work and save so that someday we may produce abundance. We should work in order to multiply what we have and also continually save so that someday we will produce fruits.
Joseph would not have been able to save Egypt from seven years of famine if he did not save 1/5 of their produce during the seven years of abundance. In the same way, the ant will not be able to survive this long if they do not work and save during the summer so that when rainy days come, they have plenty of food in store. They are so wise that even Solomon tells us in Proverbs to go and learn from them. In addition, do you know that a plant will never become fruitful if it does not save? It saves the food it produces on a daily basis so that over time, it can produce fruits.
Some people say that in order to become rich, a person must invest. But I say, "What will you invest if you do not save? But more importantly, how can you save if you do not first work?" Sad to say, most Christians do not understand the importance of working and saving. In fact, some believe that work was part of the curse God gave to man as a consequence of Adam's sin, and as the question above implies, they see savings as a lack of faith toward Him. But the truth is, to work and to save are acts of faith because these require our obedience.
I hope people like Randell and his friends will continue to educate Filipino Christians about the right way of looking at money from a biblical perspective. I am not a financial expert, but I am a businessman who has seen the power of how work and savings have changed people's lives and made them fruitful.
