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
How to Know If Money Has Become Your Idol (Jesus is King with Bryan Harris - Part 2)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Most of us pray about money. Very few of us ask God what to do with it and then sit still long enough to hear an answer. This is Part 2 of our conversation with our friend Bryan, a business owner and honestly a spiritual mentor in a lot of ways. In Part 1 he showed us how a money idol hides in a phrase you say every day. This time he shows us the other side: what it actually looks like to hear God about a money decision, and what God tends to deal with before He builds anything. In this conversation we get into the exact ten-minute practice Bryan's whole team uses to ask God what to do (a...
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How to Know If Money Has Become Your Idol (Jesus is King with Bryan Harris - Part 1)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
You can do everything right with money and still not feel free. Budget in place. Debt gone. Emergency fund full. And underneath it, the same low hum of anxiety and comparison that was there before. Our friend Bryan built his entire financial life on three words he'd heard a thousand times: cash is king. He's a Dave Ramsey superfan. He did the debt-free scream. Then one day in the shower it hit him. Cash isn't king. Jesus is. That one shift exposed a money idol he never knew he had, and it changed how he makes every financial decision since. In this conversation we get into how to tell whether...
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The Biblical formula for paying off debt miraculously fast
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
What if you don't need more money to pay off your debt? What if you just need to see what's already in your house? That's the pattern hiding inside a story in 2 Kings 4. A widow. A dead husband. A creditor at the door. And one small flask of olive oil that God multiplied until her debt was gone. This episode was recorded live from one of our workshops. Linda and I walk through the whole story, verse by verse. Then we pull five simple steps out of it for paying off debt fast: Name your need. Take inventory of your house. Gather your jars. Shut your door. And pour your flask. We also tell our...
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Does Financial Struggle Mean God Is Displeased? (The Honest Answer)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
When money is tight, a sneaky thought creeps in. If God was really pleased with me, wouldn't this be easier? I have wrestled with that question myself more times than I can count. So in this episode, Linda and I get honest about whether financial struggle means God is displeased with you. We talk about what blessed actually means, and why comparing your finances to everyone's highlight reel is a trap. We share seasons where we did everything right and money was still hard. And we look at why adversity might actually mean you're on the right path. This is for anyone quietly asking, am I doing...
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Jesus Warned About Saving Money the Wrong Way
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
I used to hate everything about our finances. Then one thing changed and paying bills actually became fun. That thing is margin. Margin is the gap between what you earn and what you spend. It might look small, but that gap is where the freedom lives. In this session from our Mission Driven Millionaire cohort, Linda and I dig into why building margin might be one of the most spiritual things you ever do with your money. We look at Joseph in Genesis 41 and how he made a plan before the famine came. We look at the ant in Proverbs 6 and what it teaches us about saving. And we talk about the two...
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How to Keep Trusting God When the Answer Doesn't Come (w/ Susie Larson)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Three different doctors told her she should be dead. She is still here, and still hosting live radio. For over three decades, Susie Larson fought Lyme disease and mold toxicity. It left seven areas of brain damage. She lost words on the air and forgot how to spell. At her lowest, IV bags filled the fridge where the groceries should have been. Her family had no money for food while their friends bought second homes. But something grew in the middle of all that pain. She learned how to trust God when the breakthrough was nowhere in sight. In this episode, Susie joins Linda and me to talk about...
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Why You Never Feel Like You Have Enough (and How to Fix It)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Almost nobody actually feels like they have enough. Not really. We chase more money, more space, more results, and the finish line keeps moving. So why does that happen? And how do you actually fix it? In this episode Linda and I dig into contentment and the real reasons so many of us feel like we never have enough. We talk about the secret Paul learned while sitting in prison. We break down three quiet causes: comparison, focusing on what you don't have, and never defining what "enough" even means. Then we get practical with steps like starting a gratitude practice, giving when you feel like...
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Why You Can't Stick to a Budget (10 Real Reasons)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
If your budget keeps falling apart after two weeks, it's probably not your fault. I used to think I was just bad with money. Then I realized the budget itself was the problem, not me. In this episode, Linda and I walk through 10 reasons budgets break and what to do instead. We cover zero-based budgeting, unrealistic numbers, tracking expenses, and the credit card mistake almost everyone makes. We also share why building fun into your budget is one of the biggest secrets to actually sticking with it. And you'll hear how one person cut their spending in half by doing one simple thing. If you...
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Simple Money, Rich Life Just Hit 100k (Here's the Story We've Never Told)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
We just sold the 100,000th copy of a book I almost didn't write. Back in school, English was my worst subject. Teachers basically told me writing wasn't for me. So when I felt God nudging me to write Simple Money, Rich Life, I pushed back hard. I even hired someone else to write it for me. But God kept saying, "You need to write this." What came next was four years of prayer, a COVID curveball, a publisher who scrapped our whole concept, and an editing process that nearly wrecked us. Sales started slow. Then the ad budget got pulled. I walked around a lake 100 times asking God if it was over....
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Should Christians Invest in Evil Companies?
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Most of us have no idea what our retirement money is actually funding. A few years ago I started wondering if some of mine was supporting things I would never support on purpose. So in this episode, I answer a question I get all the time. Should Christians invest in companies that conflict with their faith? I walk through the two main approaches: biblically responsible investing and buying in to influence a company from the inside. I share the question I ask before buying any individual stock. And I reveal the spending blind spot that might matter even more than your portfolio. Strong...
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.