Recognising a poverty mindset

Believers with a poverty mindset tend to live with a constant sense of insufficiency, in spite of Jesus’ promise of an abundant life. There is an internal thirst that is hard to quench, no matter how much wealth or respect we accumulate. We are not economically needy but are spiritually impoverished. The real issue lies in what we have put our hopes in for security — this world or the Lord? God has proclaimed that He is our shield and our exceedingly great reward. Will we believe Him?

(See Chinese versions: 简体中文 > 认识贫穷的心态 | 繁體中文 > 認識貧窮的心態)

John 10:9-10 ESV  I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Genesis 15:1 NKJV After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

The international poverty line is currently set at US$1.90/day. To qualify as someone who is truly poor, we will need to cover all our daily basic food, clothing, and shelter needs at the cost of just one bag of McDonald’s fries.

Those with a poverty mindset are not technically poor, we just feel that way.

We feel as if:

• We are in “survival mode” and we can’t really rest. | God’s Word says: Hebrews 4:3 NLT  For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.
• We can lose what we have at any time, nothing lasts. | God’s Word says: Psalm 103:17 ESV But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
• We have to get richer before we feel secure. | God’s Word says: Proverbs 23:4 NLT  Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit.
• Life is weary or joyless, or both. | God’s Word says: Matthew 11:28-29 ESV   Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
• We have a habit of coveting what others have materially. | God’s Word says: Psalm 49:16-17 NIV  Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases; or they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them.
• We need to hoard and take care of ourselves first, and not help others in need. | God’s Word says: Proverbs 28:27 ESV  Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
• We have to resist bringing financial offerings to God. | God’s Word says: Hebrews 13:16 ESV  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

A poverty mindset causes us to idolise earthly security, which always seems just out of reach. This can lead to deep discontentment, resentment, self-absorption, self-entitlement, lust, greed, and even misdirected anger towards God. How did we get this way?

Also, see Spiritual pitfalls of chasing financial security

Some roots of a poverty mindset

A poverty mindset does not just develop out of the trauma of suffering prolonged financial lack, starvation, or homelessness. It can be led by other factors as well.

• Generational | A poverty mindset can be passed down through the generations. Families that have a phobia of financial insufficiency will invariably breed such values in their children too.
• Lack of emotional security in childhood | A lack of love, attention, and affirmation in childhood can breed an unconscious insecurity in our hearts, which we falsely believe can be resolved with material gain.
• Idol worship and occultism | We are unable to thrive because either our families or we have worshipped idols or dead ancestors, consulted fortune tellers and participated in witchcraft, and have not repented and asked for God’s forgiveness. Therefore, we remain in Satan’s grip.
  Also, see Witchcraft is mainstream and dangerous and Ancestor worship opposes God’s Word
• Worldly indoctrination | The world teaches us what success looks like, tangibly. Hence, we come to believe that we are not fulfilled or good enough until we have acquired certain possessions or status.
  Also, see The myths behind materialism
• Media exposure | When we are constantly exposed to curated social media posts and celebrity news that show off what others have, we can feel poor by comparison due to a distorted view of the “perfect lifestyle.”
• Society’s discriminations | All societies have their prejudices. We can be categorised as being “poor” and stigmatized as “lower class,” and begin to believe the labels society places on us.

Behaving like spiritual beggars

No believer of Jesus Christ who walks in their spiritual inheritance from God can feel poor.

God has promised us every spiritual blessing from heaven. Long before He laid down the foundations of the earth, God chose to make us the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy through the renewal of the Holy Spirit, adopted into His own family through Jesus Christ, washed clean of our sins and redeemed from our sinful nature. He is even willing to bestow all His kindness, wisdom, and understanding on us and bring us into alignment with His glorious and perfect will for all eternity. Then He gives us the right to be called His children when we obey Jesus’ teachings. If we stay faithful to Him until the end of our lives, God will assign us to rule with Jesus Christ one day. All of this is freely available to all believers right now.

Ephesians 1:3-7 NLT  All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

2 Timothy 2:10,12 NIV  Therefore I endure everything …if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;

It is no wonder Jesus taught that it is a blessing to be “poor in spirit.” The more impoverished we feel in our spirit, the more we will taste and fully appreciate the outpouring of God’s goodness into us. What a blessed exchange.

Matthew 5:1-3 NIV  Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

James 2:5 ESV  Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Yet this is not a truth that a poverty mindset will easily embrace, because we have been so conditioned to listening to Satan (the god of this world), assuming the worst, and worrying about our earthly state of affairs. Even Jesus had to rebuke Satan for turning Peter’s focus onto human concerns, rather than the things of God. Similarly, our earthly concerns overwhelm our ability to see the “glorious light of the Good News” that God has prepared for each one of us.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT  Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Matthew 16:23 ESV  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Many ideas that come out of a poverty mindset are unbiblical. They cause us to become fear-driven, overly conservative, and self-protective about our personal interests – but most detrimentally, in our attitudes towards God

We live like spiritual beggars – slaves to the idol of earthly security – rather than living as more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. We fail to experience the freedom or peace that comes from the Holy Spirit. Also, see Testing for idols in our hearts

Romans 8:37-39 ESV  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 5:1 ESV  For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We may even label ourselves as “unlucky,” “unfairly discriminated against,” “cursed,” or “forgotten by God” – as if the King of kings and Lord of lords who owns everything in this universe is unable or unwilling to give us all that we need when we ask Him for it, according to His will. The Chinese phrase that is often used is, “我好可怜”.

Matthew 6:31-33 NLT  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Such an attitude also makes us easy targets for the prosperity gospel, which proposes that faith and obedience to God are guaranteed to bring us material wealth and physical healing – not dissimilar to the superstitions behind “Fu Lu Shou”, the Chinese three star gods of happiness, prosperity and longevity. We see God merely as a ticket out of poverty and forget that Jesus Himself chose to become poor for our sakes. The Son of God didn’t reject poverty, He embraced it.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Similarly, Jesus also warns us against being material-minded. Life is not measured by how much we own or how much we lack. This is a trap that Satan uses to ensnare many people.

Luke 12:15 ESV  And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

Also, see Recognising the “different Jesus” of the prosperity gospel

A new mindset

Do we suffer from a poverty mindset?

To renew our minds, we can start by turning away from our fleshly patterns and filling ourselves with God’s truths. This takes studying the Bible and ruminating and “chewing” on God’s Word so that it becomes the way we automatically think. 1 Timothy 6:6-12 is a good start.

Romans 12:2 ESV  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 Timothy 6:6-12 ESV  But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Another crucial aspect is to pray to forgive those who have ever made us feel poor – whether financially, physically, or emotionally – because this frees us from being spiritually tied to their sins. Also, see Forgiveness brings us new life

It is also vital to repent of our past idol worship and renounce all fortune-telling, horoscopes, tarot cards, and any other witchcraft we have consulted in the past, so that Satan no longer has a foothold to steal the blessings, joy, and hope that God has in store for us.

Ezekiel 14:6 NIV  ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!

John 10:10 NIV  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…

Moving forward, it will be imperative for us to filter what we expose our eyes and minds to so as to keep our hearts clean of unhealthy influences. The “god of this world” will tempt us to go back to our old ways of coveting things that have no eternal value.

Luke 11:34-35 NLT  “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. 

Last but most importantly, we ought to ask God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is the One who will help convict our hearts to stay away from ungodly mindsets and worldly obsessions. This is how we are “renewed” and “regenerated” as we obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings and guidance.

Titus 2:11-12, 3:5-7 ESV For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age… not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

A poverty mindset can be turned into a blessing

In reality, the experience of real or perceived poverty can be a blessing.

It gives us the opportunity to receive God’s abundant comfort and empowerment, as we obey Him and choose to overcome hardships with the help of His Word and the Holy Spirit. It enables us to love others with humility and bring God’s comfort to them too.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 ESV  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Such experiences build our endurance and character, making us mature and complete as followers of Jesus Christ. This is the way we become more than conquerors in Christ.

Romans 5:3-5 ESV  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4 NIV  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

Testimony: Overcoming generational fear of poverty and making mistakes 

“Many in my family tree experienced early deaths, serious illnesses, poverty, financial ruin, abandonment, divorce, bitterness, and estranged relationships. It seemed a spirit of poverty chased us down wherever we went.

During an inner healing and deliverance prayer session, I was given an opportunity to talk about how my parents made me feel sad, scared, angry, or disappointed. I realised that in my eyes, my father never seemed to learn from his mistakes and I came to believe that if we do not learn, life would fall apart. I have always enjoyed learning new things, but I did not see that I was also partly driven by fear and judgment.

God has used my desire to learn in many good ways, but my desire was also leading me to judge others. I could not understand why others did not want to learn, why they seemed so slow to me, and why I hated making mistakes myself.

My urgency was due to my fear that life would turn horribly bad again. But Jesus is the One who saves us, not the fact that we gain new knowledge, even if it is knowledge about the things of God. 

I need to trust that Jesus is protecting me and guiding me even when I have messed up because Jesus makes me righteous, and I do earnestly ask Him for help.

A couple of days after the prayer, my mother started telling my sister and me about how she was treated unfairly in the past. The old me would have tried to get my mother to stop talking as quickly as possible out of fear that somehow her temper would get out of hand again. But this time, I prayed, took a deep breath, and acknowledged my mother’s pain. She talked more about the circumstances – which were very serious – and about her bitterness and inability to speak up for herself. I was struck by how my mother was held captive by the same patterns that had held me captive for so long.

By God’s grace, I had the opportunity and courage to praise my mother for her kindness even though she felt cornered, and pointed out that because of her kindness a long time ago, God has brought many kind people into my life to bless me in return. My sister, who is also a believer, jumped in and continued the conversation to bring comfort to my mother.

These kinds of conversations have never happened in my family before, and I am thankful for how God brings blessings when we turn to Him and release our own unforgiveness, fears, and pain.”

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love God with all your heart and trust in His abundance provision for you.

Also, see:
Attitudes that lead to financial ruin and curses
Managing money God’s way
Four lessons about money