Money becomes an idol when it takes God's position as your source of security, and when having enough of it becomes the condition for your generosity. Early scarcity planted a fear of collapse that lived in me long after the finances improved. And that fear quietly became a framework: I'll be generous when I have more. Years went by. The 'more' kept moving. Life was happening in the meantime. The people who needed something needed it now, not when the math worked out. The pivot came not through abundance but through one of my most financially uncertain years. It took losing the predictable paycheck, the benefits, the security, to finally start seeing God's provision clearly enough to trust him with what I had. The biblical reframe: the widow of Zarephath gave everything she had, first, to someone else, at Elijah's request. The jar of flour didn't run out. The oil didn't run dry. Open hands, not closed ones. Give first with what you have, and trust that the one who pours out will keep pouring.
When Josh and I started the business, we were truly broke. Overdrawn accounts. Barely enough money for food. Not poor management, just nothing coming in. That experience planted something in me I didn't examine for years: a scarcity mindset that said there is never quite enough, and everything you have could collapse. That fear quietly became a rule about generosity: give when the math works out. When there's margin. When the debt is cleared. When the income is stable. None of those conditions ever quite arrived. The opportunities to give kept passing. Life kept going. The person in front of me needed something now, and I kept waiting.
The widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17 is the episode's central story. There's a famine. Elijah finds her preparing her last meal: a handful of flour and a little oil. Elijah asks her to make him bread first. Serve me before you feed yourself. And she does. And the flour doesn't run out. The oil doesn't run dry. Jesus reinforces the same pattern in Mark 12: a poor widow gives two copper coins worth almost nothing, and Jesus says her gift exceeded everyone who gave from their surplus. God's economy doesn't start with having enough. It starts with what you have, given first, with open hands.
- Scarcity experiences create scarcity mindsets. Having been truly broke plants a fear that takes years to recognize and longer to uproot. It shapes how you hold money long after the season of actual scarcity has ended.
- Waiting until you have 'enough' before being generous is a trap because 'enough' keeps moving. The condition never gets fully met. Meanwhile, life and the opportunities to give keep going.
- Money becomes an idol when it's where your security lives: when you believe that getting the lead gen system dialed in, getting the income predictable, will finally let you relax. That confidence belongs to God, not to a system.
- The widow of Zarephath gave her last meal first. The widow in Mark 12 gave everything she had. God consistently uses people in scarcity as examples of faith, not people in abundance.
- Open hands instead of closed ones. God pours in and through, not into something sealed shut. Generosity isn't what you do after you've secured yourself. It's the posture that makes provision possible.
- The most uncertain year of my life was also when I saw God's provision most clearly. The stories that shape faith are the ones where you had to trust him for the outcome.
- Being transformed by the renewing of the mind means the scarcity frame doesn't win by default anymore. It still comes back. But you have stories to point to now. Evidence that his math is different from yours.
How does money become an idol for a Christian entrepreneur?
Money becomes an idol when it takes the place of God as your source of security. When the peace you're waiting for is: if I can just get the income stable, if I can get the lead gen system dialed in, then I can relax. That posture puts your trust in the system rather than in God.
For me, the foundation was scarcity. Josh and I started the business with nothing coming in. Overdrawn accounts. Barely enough for food. And that season planted a fear that said: at any moment, everything could collapse. That fear didn't leave when the finances improved. It became a mindset, a way of holding money tightly.
The specific idol in this episode is what that mindset produced in my relationship with generosity. My heart truly wanted to give, to pour out, to be an open vessel. But I was always waiting for the right circumstance. When we make more. When the debt is cleared. When there's margin. And the condition kept moving, and life kept going.
I finally had this realization that my life is happening right now. Whatever my business looks like right now, whatever my resources look like right now, whatever my schedule looks like right now, I need to live in the now.
Amy Dardis, Episode 28What does the widow of Zarephath teach about money and generosity?
The story is in 1 Kings 17. There's a drought and a famine. God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath. He finds the widow gathering sticks. The widow says it's her last meal: a handful of flour and a little olive oil. The widow and her son planned to eat it and die. Elijah asks for water first, then adds: bring me a piece of bread too. And the widow tells him: I have nothing. And his response: don't be afraid. Go home and do as you said. But first, make a small loaf for me.
Serve me first. Give first, out of the last thing you have, to someone else. And then he gives the promise: the jar of flour will not be used up, the jug of oil will not run dry until the day God sends rain.
The part I keep coming back to is the sequence. God doesn't send Elijah to the woman who has surplus. He sends him to the woman with one meal left. His ask is for obedience before provision: give first, then watch what I do. The miracle comes after the trust, not before it.
Jesus reinforces the same principle in Mark 12 with the widow's offering. A poor widow gives two copper coins worth almost nothing. Jesus says that gift exceeded everyone who gave from their surplus, because it came out of poverty. What God's economy values isn't the amount. It's the posture. Open hands. Giving first.
How do you break a scarcity mindset around money as an entrepreneur?
The breakthrough came through a season of genuine dependence I didn't choose. The predictable paycheck was gone. The benefits were gone. The financial security was gone. And in the uncertainty, I started to see God provide in ways I would never have planned for or predicted. Those stories became the new foundation.
There's something specific that happens when you've watched God come through in a way you couldn't engineer. The fear of not having enough loses its grip because you have evidence that contradicts it. The jar didn't run out. The oil didn't run dry. Not because of the right financial planning, but because I obeyed and watched what he did.
The practical shift: moving from 'I'll be generous when I have more' to 'what do I have to give right now?' Not waiting for margin. Not waiting for the condition to be met. Looking at today: who can I help, who can I serve, who can I be an open vessel for? That's a decision about posture before it's a decision about amount.
Resources mentioned
- Ep 27 — The Idol of Ambition — Previous episode: doing it for the wrong reasons
- Ep 29 — The Idol of Comfort — Next in the series: clinging to what you know instead of trusting God
- Free Hiring Resources
Full transcript
Welcome back to the building. And in today's episode, we are continuing on in our series on idols and entrepreneurship and business. And today we're diving into the idol of money. An idol is an object or a concept that we give a higher priority than God. It's anything we rely on for blessing, help, or guidance instead of God. Anything that consumes our heart, thoughts, devotion more than God. It's any good thing or bad thing that we elevate to a position of prominence, power, influence in our life higher than God. And in this case, money is often an idol. It's talked about in the Bible a lot. And especially for entrepreneurs, making money is a focus. It's part of running the business. But the question is: where are we putting our hope? Are we putting it in God or are we putting it in money and in what money can do for us?
As always, these are just my own stories of how I've wrestled with these idols, how they've shown up in my life as an entrepreneur. When it comes to money, this is probably my least favorite topic to talk about. Something I have always struggled with. I think I've struggled with money in a lot of different ways, and we're not going to dive into all of them today. There's not enough time for that. There is just one specific focus I kind of want to share today, and it's more of what God is teaching me right now through this season, and the journey that it's taken me to even get here to be able to share this.
When we first started out as a business, obviously I've shared about this before. We didn't know what we were doing, we had no connections, no brands, no processes, nothing, and therefore did not make any money. We were so broke and we struggled so hard. And that set in me a scarcity mindset, a fear of never having enough because there was a time when we didn't have enough, where there was no breathing room, there was no margin. It wasn't even that we were managing money poorly, it's that there just was not enough money coming in to even cover the bills or food or what we were trying to do. And so we dug ourselves into this big hole, and that kind of became my foundation for money at the beginning, and it planted in me some very negative mindsets, some very unhealthy mindsets that I did not have any awareness of at the time. It's taken me years to unpack these things and understand where these things were first planted, how they created roots in my life.
I grew this scarcity mindset of there not being enough, and it planted in me a fear: at any given moment, everything is going to collapse. Like this is all built on a house of cards. Because I was putting my hope in the wrong thing, I wasn't putting it in the source of hope, I was putting it in money and in what my business could generate and produce. And then because of that, I did not have a heart of giving. I did not have a heart of generosity. And I justified it to myself by saying that when I make enough money, when I get out of debt, when this condition is met, then I will be generous, then I will give back, then I will pour out. Years went by and I kind of just continued on in this mindset of: when things are better, when we make enough, when, when, when.
And that's taken me a long time to wrap my head around, to come to a place where I've finally humbled my heart and finally changed my mindset to really understand what that means: being in a position to pour out, to be an open vessel, to live with my hands open so that God can pour in and through, instead of it just stopping at me, which is kind of where I had been for so long. And this idea of learning to be content and to recognize what enough is, because it's easy to get in this mindset, especially in business where you're like always moving, always growing, always setting these goals. Only that point keeps changing. And it's always this more, more, more. And if you're not growing, then you're dying.
Instead of realizing that as I'm having this mindset, life is going by. The weeks are passing and the months are passing, and the opportunities to impact, to give, to be generous are passing me by. And I just keep walking by. I just keep waiting and waiting and waiting until there's a better time or a better circumstance. And here my heart is wanting to be someone who's generous, but I'm not actually living that out. I'm not actually following through because I'm waiting for the perfect time and circumstance. And I finally had this realization that my life is happening right now. Whatever my business looks like right now, whatever my resources look like right now, whatever my schedule looks like right now, I need to live in the now.
And I think about the story in 1 Kings 17 about Elijah and the widow. There's a drought and a famine in the land. Elijah is told to go and find a widow in Zarephath. He finds her gathering sticks, and he calls to her and says, Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I can have a drink? And as she's going to get it, he calls, bring me please a piece of bread. And she responds: as surely as the Lord your God lives, I don't have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it and die.
So here's this widow that God tells Elijah to go and find, someone who basically has nothing left. She's literally preparing to die. And God says go to her, not go to the person who's super wealthy, not go to the person who has excess or margin. God says go to the woman who has nothing, who's getting ready for her last meal, and ask her for bread and water. And then his response to her: don't be afraid, go home and do as you have said, but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. So this lady who has nothing: serve me first. Which requires a huge leap of faith.
But then he continues: for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: the jar of flour will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land. And I think about how I want to live my life: here is this switch between instead of waiting until I have enough, here God is saying, I recognize that you don't have enough, or you think that you don't have enough, but you have me, which is more than enough. I'm the one who pours out, I'm the one who pours through. So when you're willing to be generous, when you're willing to step out and give to somebody first, when you're willing to trust me that I'm going to come through and take care of you, that's when I move.
And then I also think about what Jesus talks about in Mark 12, about the widow and her offering. Jesus sits down opposite the place where the offerings are put and watches the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said: truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all she had to live on. And he was like: this woman's faith will be remembered, it'll be talked about.
So God uses these examples throughout the Bible of people who didn't have enough, who weren't in a season of wealth or generosity, and here he's providing for them, but it's first when they're giving to someone else, or they're giving to God. And so here is this act of giving, this act of being generous, and in this season right now of all this uncertainty, especially as an entrepreneur, it's like most of the time, especially in the early years of building, your income is very uncertain. You'll have months where it's good and you'll have months where it's bad, and you haven't figured out this predictability, this lead gen system, which we all want to get to, right? We all want to get to this security, this stable, predictable: here is where my income is coming from, and I can bank on that.
And when we do that, it's easy to kind of slide into this: well, I can put my trust and I can put my hope in this system, in this process, and my ability to produce wealth instead of remembering that it all comes from God, and anything can happen at any time. God wants us to make the most of it right here, right now, today, where we're at. To be able to open up our eyes and look around and see who can I help, who can I serve, who can I bless, who can I be an open vessel for, for God to work in and through. And that can only happen when our hope is in him and we're trusting in him for everything.
And that's something it's taken me so long to even get here. And even then, it's faith. It's a battle. It's me having to take that step first to say: I don't know what's coming next, I don't know how this is all going to work out because the math doesn't add up. But what kind of person do I want to be? What kind of life do I want to live? And I was tired of being someone who wanted to live a generous life, who wanted to be a generous person, and I wasn't being that person. I wasn't living that life. And I kept waiting for the right circumstances, waiting for all the math to line up. And I was like: no more.
The shame here is that I had a season of predictability. A season where every two weeks I was getting a consistent paycheck, and I wasn't nearly as generous or as outpouring as I should have been. And so here God strips me away of all of that. And here I am, like desperately relying on him and desperately needing him, and he's changing my heart through this process, he's changing my mind through this process. We're transformed by the renewing of our mind, and here he is changing the way I think about money, the way I think about people, the way I think about my time and my life, and how I want to serve him and how I want to honor him. Coming back to these two great commandments: love God and love people. And I get to do that through my business and through this podcast.
Showing me that that's where money became an idol: it became this security, it became this scarcity, it became this thing that I wasn't trusting in God for the provision. I wasn't trusting in him to not let the oil run dry, to not let the flour run out. And it's a scary thing to be in that position, where you're like: God, I am relying on you to see me through, to provide for me, to keep a shelter over my head, to keep food on my table. That is so scary. But this last year, in one of the most uncertain years of my life, I've seen his goodness, I've seen his grace, I've seen his provision. In ways I would have never expected, never planned for or predicted. And those are the stories that fill my life, those are the stories that shape my faith. It's a life with him that is just so much better than I could have ever asked or imagined. Not easy, not safe, not comfortable, not predictable. But that's because I'm choosing to live a life where faith is in him, my hope is in him. So as always, you can learn more at clearauthenticbrands.com. That's all for this episode. See you next time.