Survey: Bible reading tied to financial success

Reading the Bible daily turns out to be wise financial advice, according to a new Pew survey.

The more faithful someone is in their Bible reading, the less debt that person is likely to have, the View from the Pew study concluded.

More than 1,000 Christian households participated in the second annual View from the Pew surveys, a collaborative research project by the ministry Maximum Generosity and Christianity Today International, a leading evangelical magazine publisher.

The study showed people who consistently read their Bible have smaller mortgage and car payments and fewer unpaid credit cards.

Brian Kluth, a pastor and author writing for the evangelical Assist News Service, pointed to two reasons Bible readers fare better financially.

"The first reason would be that discipline in one's spiritual life often leads to greater disciplines in other areas of one's life, including how someone manages their finances," he wrote.

"The second reason is that those who consistently spend time in the Scriptures are tapping into God's wisdom and guidance for their daily financial decisions."

The survey showed daily Bible readers are more than twice as likely to give 10 percent or more of their income to their church and other Christian ministries.

Kluth said that while people might be inclined to think that amount of wealth would determine the level of giving, "it is actually a person's spiritual discipline and biblical convictions that determines if someone will be a faithful and generous giver."

"Daily Bible reading leads people to a conviction that God is their true provider and they are to be generous with whatever resources God entrusts to them during their lifetime," he said.

Kluth is the author of the best-selling 40 Day Bible devotional, with more than 400,000 copies in print.