In God We Trust
“And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” The Savior deftly avoided getting baited into saying something recriminating by telling His questioners that they should give the money to him whose image and superscription it bore, and to give unto God the things which belonged to God. Our coins today may have the images of our Presidents and Founding Fathers and other important historical figures, but the superscription on each and every coin does in fact bear the name of God. “In God We Trust” is engraved or printed on every piece of US currency. Therefore, by following the Savior’s logic, we ought to render unto God the things which are God’s, which includes our money. Of course, even if the money didn’t have God’s name on it, we would be just as obliged to offer it to Him, as God is the source of all of the metal and all of the ink and paper and every possible thing upon which we could place any value. But I want to focus for a moment on the phrase “In God We Trust.” Most of us do try to rely on books or podcasts or crowdsourced internet answers or financial advisers or celebrity endorsements to determine how we ought to spend or save or invest our money in the way that will bring us the most profit. We may come to swear by this or that financial institution or stock portfolio or cryptocurrency or stockpile of natural resources. But would it not make more sense, when it comes to financial matters, to put our trust in One Who not only has our best interest in mind and is scrupulously honest and infinitely wise but also can see the end from the beginning and can direct us in the very best way forward? I’m not saying that if we sit there and pray long enough, God will tell us which horse to bet on or which lottery ticket to buy or in which companies we should buy stock. But it can only do us a world of good if we choose to involve our Heavenly Father in every major decision of our lives - including financial decisions. Now, He may tell us, like Peter, to go fish until we find enough money to pay our debts. Or, He may tell us, like the rich young man, to sell all we have and give to the pour and come and follow Him. What I do know is that if we give generously of our time and our talents and even our money to the Lord, He will bless us not only in the world to come, but right here in this life. Our money has God’s name on the superscription and we ought to render unto God the things which are God’s.
