“And David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” (2 Samuel 5:12 NIV)

So you’ve just gotten a promotion at work, or a pay raise, received a degree from trade school or university, or some other expected (or unexpected), prayed for, hoped for financial blessing, and you’re faced with the new task of delegating the money into where it needs to go. This is great, and the best first step you can take after thanking God for the blessing, but have you asked yourself (or God) why you got the blessing yet? If you aren’t sure why you should do this, then this blog post will give some clear direction as to why you should wonder why you were blessed.

God Answers Prayer

We’ve already established in a previous post that God will open the windows of Heaven if you tithe and give cheerfully, so you know the foundation for your blessing. God knows the desires of your heart, He loves to give good things, and He knows what you need in advance. However, there may be another underlying reason for your newfound monetary blessing. In the Scripture above, you learn that King David was made king—given an entire kingdom!—in order to bless the nation of Israel. Not just to benefit King David, although it most certainly did bless him in many ways, but for the edification and promotion of the entire nation.

Something to Pray About

So have you thought about what God intends for you to do with this bonus money?

Here are some ideas to pray about:

• Giving more generously to a specific ministry. This may be a specific person, your local church, or a charity. There are always thousands (millions) of people who need help.
• Welcoming others into your home. It’s a scary thought to think of strangers in your new home, but perhaps God gave you that big, beautiful house so that you could foster children, have visiting missionaries stay with you or allow a grown, struggling child to move back home.
• Paying off debt faster. You’re already using a budget to get out of debt, and this new blessing can be a great way to snowball debt out of the way faster. Use the steps we’ve given you or take the 30-day Spending Challenge for more details about financial freedom.
• Saving money easier. Sometimes it’s hard to save money when you have bills to pay and mountains of debt, but saving money is your best contingency plans for many reasons. Whether you lose your job, your spouse loses his/her job, a child goes off to college, the roof collapses, your car is totalled or some other emergency, you will be prepared.

Parting Thoughts

One final reminder is that you have to tithe on the new amount if it’s related to a raise, because if you don’t, your new financial blessing may instead become a curse. As with everything, commit to God in prayer and do your part to keep the blessings coming. He’s a good God, and He loves to give good things, and He’ll continue to amaze you so long as you’re being a faithful steward of what He provides.