The Courage to be Rich

The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance

In the bible there is a verse:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:10 New International Version 

This book made me look at the verse in a different way.

Suze Orman is an American personal financial adviser and a two-time Emmy Award-winning television host, New York Times mega bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world today. She has won numerous awards and yet started out growing up on the South Side of Chicago earning a bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Illinois and at the age of 30 was still a waitress making $400 a month.
Her life story was that of an ordinary child but she made choices to change it.

In her book "The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance" Suze took me on a journey that showed me that it is not to have a love of money in the sense that it becomes your idol but to love it with the respect it deserves. You either have a love for money or a love for possessions - and the later will never leave you with any money. Giving money the respect it deserves enables it to stay with you and build up to become a tool you can use for the good in your life.

This book is a handbook based on the American financial system so a lot of it was not relevant in New Zealand but her explanations, examples of 'peoples' stories and a guide as to what to expect, what to do and what not to do, can be adapted for anyone anywhere in the world. She addresses the rites of passage we all might and/or must face - marriage, divorce, death, spending (and overspending), the financial situations we may well find ourselves in at theses times and taking control of our financial tomorrow's today.
At first she makes you take an honest look at where you are today in relation to your finances and invites you to participate in some activities to truly make you stop and take control where ever you are.

The book is more than a book about money. It's a book about emotions and feelings and living a life of abundance. It's a book that encourages you to face the feelings and emotions you have about money and to learn.

Throughout the book she posts little rules to live by when it comes to money.

I've included some of them here.

She ends it by encouraging you to give, not out of your poverty as that will never help you get ahead, but out of your abundance and how the act will release you to the rewards of being able to 'love' money for its worth and what it can do not just for you but for others in the world.


We may not all become millionaires or huge investors on the stock exchange but with educated decisions we can become rich - enough to share - and so to have enjoyment and peace.

We have the courage to be rich, to be in control and so not have money control us.

Going back to the verse I first mentioned -

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Yes the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil when it is a selfish desire to have it for your own means. But God wants to bless us and in that we will have an abundance.

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Psalm 128:2 New International Version

You may well say - well that's not for all people and what about those who are starving and struggling with afflictions that we may never have to experience. When we are rich then out of that abundance we can give to others. Having a love of money to be able to be in the position to give is something we should all desire. The act of giving is not evil and to give in a financial way means to have a loving respect of money to be able to work for God and you.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 (NIV) 
Generosity Encouraged 
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: 

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”  

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

All scripture is taken from New International Version