Have you ever gotten paid and felt this quiet urgency to spend it? Not because you needed something. Not because you were being reckless. But because somewhere deep inside, something was saying: Use it before it disappears. I used to do this too. And for years I didn’t even realize I was doing it. Then one day I traced it back to a moment from my childhood I had almost forgotten. My parents had set up a savings account for me and my siblings. I remember working, saving, and feeling proud watching that number grow. It felt like I was building something. Then one day it was gone. Someone needed the money, and it was taken. And without anyone saying it out loud, my subconscious learned a rule that day: Money doesn’t stay. So use it while you have it. That wasn’t a spending habit. That was a survival response. And survival responses don’t just disappear. They follow you into every paycheck, every opportunity, every business, and every financial breakthrough… until you recognize them and replace them with truth. Here’s what I understand now that I didn’t understand then: Your behavior with money is not mainly about discipline. It’s about what you believe money does. If you believe money leaves, you spend it before it can. If you believe money is scarce, you hold it in fear. If you believe you don’t deserve it, you sabotage it the moment it shows up. None of those are character flaws. They’re programs. Programs installed early. Programs running quietly in the background. And the good news is this: Programs can be rewritten. Scripture says in Epistle to the Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The word for transformed there comes from the Greek metamorphoo — the same root we get metamorphosis from. It doesn’t mean small adjustments. It means a complete internal transformation. Like a caterpillar that doesn’t just change its behavior… it becomes something entirely different. That’s what’s available to you.

Two words. That’s all it took. Two words were removed from a scripture… and generations of believers ended up believing something God never actually said. Most people know the verse like this: “Money is the root of all evil.” But that’s not what the scripture says. Here’s what it actually says: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” — 1 Timothy 6:10 Two small changes completely altered the meaning. “The love of” disappeared. “All kinds of” became simply “all.” That may sound like a small edit… but it created a massive shift in how believers think about wealth. Because when those words disappear, the message changes from a warning about idolatry… to a warning about money itself. And when that happens, something subtle begins to take place. Hard-working, faithful believers start shrinking back from building wealth. They begin to associate prosperity with greed. They confuse poverty with humility. So instead of building, they settle. Instead of expanding, they pull back. Meanwhile the world keeps building businesses, systems, and wealth — while many believers sit inside churches convinced that wanting more somehow makes them less spiritual. But the verse was never about money being evil. It was about the LOVE of money. When money replaces God as the object of devotion. That’s a completely different message. One interpretation creates believers who feel guilty about prosperity. The other creates believers who build, steward, and multiply what God has placed in their hands. Because the Bible never teaches that wealth itself is evil. In fact, God says something very direct in Deuteronomy 8:18: He says He gives us the power to get wealth. The Hebrew word for power there is koach — meaning strength, ability, and capacity. It’s the God-given capability to produce and create. And the word for wealth in that context carries the idea of strength, resources, and abundance — not just money, but flourishing in every area of life. That means wealth was never meant to be worshiped…but it also was never meant to be feared.

Nobody ever taught me how to build wealth…They taught me how to survive without it. When I was young, my parents opened up a savings account for me and my siblings. I remember watching that balance grow and feeling something I had never felt before — ownership… progress… possibility. For the first time, I felt like I was building something that was mine. Then one day, my mother sat us down and told us she needed the money. Just like that… everything we had saved was gone. And in that moment, without anyone saying it out loud, three beliefs got written deep into my mind: - Money doesn’t stay. - You can’t protect what you build. - And when family needs something… yours doesn’t matter. I carried those beliefs for years without even realizing it. Then I went to church… and unknowingly, those beliefs got reinforced. I kept hearing that “money is the root of all evil”… but nobody emphasized the word "love of" at the beginning of the verse. I saw a version of Jesus that looked poor… and was taught that poverty meant humility. Wealth was labeled as greed… and lack was dressed up as contentment. So every Sunday, my spirit was being fed…but my mindset around money was being quietly limited. I was growing spiritually… but shrinking financially. So I did what I thought was right. I worked hard. I prayed hard. I stayed faithful. And yet… I still had nothing to show for it. And when money did come… I spent it quickly. Not because I lacked discipline but because deep down, I didn’t believe it would stay anyway. That’s not a money problem. That’s a belief system. Everything changed when I stopped casually reading Deuteronomy 8:18… and actually studied it. That’s when I realized God didn’t just allow us to get wealth… He equipped us for it. The word "power" in that verse, in Hebrew is — koach — which means power, ability, capacity. Not someday… not randomly… but intentionally placed inside of us to produce wealth. And the word for "wealth" in Hebrew is — chayil — isn’t just money.