The 3 Money Tests God Gives Every Christian (And Why Most of Us Are Failing)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Release Date: 04/03/2026
He Burned Out as a Pastor (Then Discovered this…) w/Mark Buchanan
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Most of us have quietly convinced ourselves that busy-ness is a badge of honor. Mark Buchanan believed the same thing — until it almost cost him his health, his marriage, and his connection with God. And what he found on the other side of that is something the modern church has almost entirely stopped talking about. In this conversation, Linda and I sit down with Mark Buchanan — author of The Rest of God, God Walk, and his new historical fiction novel What Is Left of the Night — to talk about why busyness kills the heart, what Sabbath really means as more than a day, how walking is a...
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You're Not Broke — You Have a Leak. Here's the Framework That Finds It.
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
You're not careless with money. You try to be intentional. But somehow at the end of the month, there's still less than there should be — and you can't quite figure out where it went. What if the problem isn't discipline — but a type of spending leak that even the most careful budgeters almost never catch? In this episode, I walk through the Cost vs. Frequency Matrix — a simple framework for identifying three invisible drains that quietly bleed most middle-class budgets dry. We talk about value decay (purchases that made total sense once, but quietly stopped serving you), what the...
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Why When You Feel Least Qualified Is When God Does His Best Work
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
The day Jesus fed five thousand people from almost nothing — he was also grieving the violent death of his best friend and cousin. He'd tried to get away to be alone. The crowds followed him anyway. And instead of sending them home, the Bible says "he had compassion on them." Out of his grief. Out of his exhaustion. In this episode, Linda and I walk through Matthew 14 and what was actually happening to Jesus during this wild 24-hour stretch — the grief, the exhaustion, the interrupted attempt at solitude, and the back-to-back miracles that came out of it. We also talk about what Linda...
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How to Hear the Holy Spirit About Your Finances (with Alex Seeley)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
She prayed for seven years for a breakthrough. The more she prayed, the worse things got. And she ended up on the bathroom floor saying she didn’t want to be alive anymore. What the Holy Spirit showed her in that moment — about control, about fear disguised as faith, about the difference between begging and believing — is something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. In this episode, Linda and I sit down with Alex Seeley — author of The Divine Counselor — for one of the most honest conversations we’ve had on this show. Alex shares how a 20-year eating disorder rooted in...
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The 3 Money Tests God Gives Every Christian (And Why Most of Us Are Failing)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Have you ever wondered why financial breakthrough feels so close yet so far? Bob and Linda Lotich reveal that God is constantly testing us with money—and most of us don't even realize it's happening. In this eye-opening conversation, they break down the three distinct money tests every believer faces, how to identify which one you're in right now, and what God is trying to teach you through it. What You'll Learn: The Three Tests - The Struggling Test - When you have less than you think you need The Surplus Test - When extra money comes your way The Stable...
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The One Verse God Said to Remember (That Everyone Forgot)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
In all of Scripture, there are only a handful of times when God explicitly tells us to "remember" something. Each time, it's attached to something vital—communion, Christ's resurrection, where we've fallen. But there's one verse where God commands us to remember a principle that much of the church seems to have forgotten entirely. In this episode, Bob and Linda explore 2 Corinthians 9:6: "Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop." Key Topics Discussed: Why This...
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Why I think God hates our money system (and what to do about it)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Is our money system actually working against faithful stewardship? In this episode, Bob and Linda tackle a conversation almost no one in the church is having—but one every Christian steward needs to understand. Bob opens with a shocking reality: $100 in 1971 now buys about $12 worth of stuff. Same number. Far less value. So what happened? From there, the conversation zooms out to explore inflation, fiat currency, and why Scripture repeatedly condemns unequal weights and measures. Is our modern money system quietly violating biblical principles—and if so, what...
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Your Budget Is Not a Jail Cell—It’s a Spiritual Warfare Plan
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
When money is tight, a budget can feel like punishment. Like proof you messed up… or worse, proof your faith is weak. But what if that’s backwards? In this episode, Bob and Linda flip the script and show why a budget isn’t evidence of failure—it’s evidence of faith in action. Drawing from Scripture, psychology, and real-life stories, they unpack why budgeting is actually a weapon God gives us in seasons of financial pressure. If you’ve ever thought, “If God would just fix this, why do I need a spreadsheet?”—this conversation is for you. ...
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You're Meaner to Yourself Than God Is to You (w/ Earl McClellan)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Get Your Spirit Back: Breaking Free from the Lies Holding You Back - with Pastor Earl McClellan What if the biggest thing holding you back isn’t your circumstances… but the lies you’ve believed about yourself? In this powerful, deeply honest conversation, Bob & Linda sit down with Pastor Earl McClellan, lead pastor of Shoreline City Church and author of Get Your Spirit Back, to talk about negative self-talk, fear, calling, identity, and what it really looks like to walk by faith when you’re scared. This isn’t a hype-up, “just believe harder”...
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Does a Church Salary Always Corrupt Pastors? (This Guy Says Yes)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
A viral clip claims something shocking: any pastor who gets paid by a church will eventually be corrupted by money. It’s a bold accusation — and honestly, harder to dismiss than you might think. In this episode, Bob and Linda watch the clip, slow it down, and wrestle with the real tension underneath the claim. Is the modern church system broken? Does money inevitably compromise spiritual leadership? Or is this another example of painting faithful people with too broad a brush? This conversation isn’t defensive or dismissive. It’s thoughtful, biblical,...
info_outline What You'll Learn:
The Three Tests -
- The Struggling Test - When you have less than you think you need
- The Surplus Test - When extra money comes your way
- The Stable Test - When nothing has changed for years
- Why the habits you build in struggle carry you into surplus
- The George Mueller story that will transform how you pray about provision
- How to know if you're in a "rest season" or need to take action
- Why stability might be the sneakiest test of all
- The practical "50/50 rule" for handling raises and windfalls
- How to create your own "stack of stones" to remember God's faithfulness
Powerful Quotes:
Biblical Foundations:
- Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
- The Rich Fool (Luke 12)
- George Mueller's radical faith
- Israelites and the manna
- James 1:2-5 on trials and wisdom
Action Steps:
- Identify which test you're in right now - Are you struggling, experiencing surplus, or in a stable season?
- Create your modern "stack of stones" - Write down a timeline of how God has provided for you in the past
- Do a self-evaluation - How are you handling your current test?
- Ask God for wisdom - Is this a season to rest or a season to take action?
- Set up structures for surplus - Consider implementing the "50/50 rule" for future raises
The Bottom Line:
Scripture References:
- Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Talents)
- Luke 12 (The Rich Fool)
- James 1:2-5 (Consider it all joy)
- Proverbs (multiple references to saving and wisdom)
- Genesis 8:22 (Seedtime and harvest)
Resources Mentioned:
- Simple Money, Rich Life by Bob Lotich - seedtime.com/smrl
- George Mueller's autobiography - https://www.georgemuller.org/uploads/4/8/6/5/48652749/the-autobiography-of-george-muller.pdf
- True Financial Freedom course - seedtime.com/tff
- Mission-Driven Millionaire program - seedtime.com/mdm
Watch this episode on our SeedTime Money Podcast YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/sMnrFh6o2Ls)!
If you haven’t checked out our best-selling book Simple Money, Rich Life (https://seedtime.com/smrl/), we think you’ll love it. It was named the 2022 Book of the Year by ICFH and has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon, and is best described as “a money book for people who don’t read money books.”
You can take it for a test drive for FREE at https://SeedTime.com/sample where you can download chapter 1 of the audiobook, grab the 1st 2 chapters of the ebook version, and even get the 5-week book study companion guide.