If someone offered you a guaranteed £50,000 today, or the chance to flip a coin for a 50 per cent chance of winning £1 million, which would you choose?
That was the question posed to almost 4,500 UK adults in a recent YouGov poll1. Around three quarters preferred the certainty of £50,000, while 21% were willing to risk it all for the larger prize. The rest just found it too difficult to answer. How would you respond?
There is no right or wrong answer. Our financial circumstances, responsibilities and attitude to risk all shape how we respond. Correlations with gender, age and ‘social grade’ provoke some interesting questions.
Source: YouGov1
Yet the poll is fascinating because it reminds us how naturally our minds are drawn to wealth. Money represents much more than numbers in a bank account. We often associate it with security, freedom, comfort and opportunity. We naturally wonder whether having more would make life better.
‘Great gain’
Paul addresses that instinct to secure our life circumstances in his first letter to Timothy. In a world where success was often measured by status and possessions, Paul offers a very different definition of wealth.
'But godliness with contentment is great gain.'
1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)
Those few words completely reshape the conversation.
Paul is not arguing that money is unimportant, nor that Christians should avoid building savings or planning wisely for the future. Throughout Scripture, wise stewardship is commended. Instead, Paul is warning against allowing wealth to become the core pursuit of our hearts.
He continues:
'For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.'
1 Timothy 6:7 (NIV)
Every possession we own is temporary. Every investment, every home and every bank balance will one day be left behind. Remembering this helps us keep money in its proper place. We are stewards for a lifetime, not owners for eternity.
Paul's warning becomes stronger as the passage continues. The desire to get rich can become a trap that leads people away from faith and into "many griefs". His concern is not wealth itself but the love of money and the false hope that it can provide what only God can give.
Investing in what lasts
If our wealth cannot accompany us into eternity, what can?
The answer is found in what our money achieves while it is still entrusted to us.
Every act of generosity that strengthens a church, supports Christian ministry, relieves hardship or helps someone encounter Jesus can bear fruit long after we are gone. The money itself remains on earth, but its impact can reach into eternity because God continues to work through what has been faithfully given.
That is why Jesus encouraged his followers to store up treasures in heaven. He was inviting them to invest their lives and resources in God's Kingdom, where the returns cannot be measured by financial statements.
A different question
The YouGov poll invited people to choose between two ways of gaining wealth.
Scripture asks different questions altogether: Where is our hope placed? What are we really pursuing?
Do our financial decisions reveal contentment in God's provision, or confidence that more wealth will finally satisfy us?
God entrusts each of us with resources for a season. Whether we have much or little, we have the privilege of using those resources in ways that honour him and bless others.
One day we will leave every earthly possession behind. Until then, we have an extraordinary opportunity to invest in the only Kingdom that will never pass away. That is the great gain Paul encourages us to pursue.
Generosity: There's an app for that
Good financial stewardship is undoubtedly a lifelong, faith-filled mindset, not simply a system or an administrative task.
The Stewardship Giving Account helps you set aside money for future generosity and discover causes you care about. It also includes biblical content to help you explore the theology and practice of generosity more deeply, making it a practical tool to support you on your giving journey.
1 YouGov survey of 4598 GB adults, published 22 July 2026. Link
Learn to live more generously
Join thousands receiving insights and reflections that encourage a life of generosity. Sign up to Generous today and receive a free digital copy of Money and the Gospel.
James Bishop
James is our Digital Marketing Manager and works within our Purpose team to connect Christians to the causes they care about and to inspire them to live out the freedom that active generosity offers. He works on website content and email newsletters, advertising on social media and making sure people using search engines can find us. James also contributes to campaigns such as 40acts and the Generosity Report.
Before joining Stewardship in 2025, James worked in marketing departments of all sizes, from a biotech startup to a large civil engineering consultancy and most recently a learning disability charity.
James lives in Surrey and serves in a local church as a director of their non-profit community café and on their AV team. James is reluctantly making a middle-age transition from football to golf and loves making homemade pizza and good coffee.
