Give some, save some, spend some

With over 61 per cent of Canadians spending at least half their take-home income on bills, fixed expenses and debt payments, Rebecca van Noppen is calling on people beset with monetary challenges to embrace walking with God as a solution to economic anxiety.

“Somewhere along the line we have separated our financial management from our walk with God,” declared van Noppen, a Christian author, broadcaster and financial coach who has co-hosted over 500 episodes of the radio show and podcast Let's Talk Money from Ottawa alongside her husband David, a mortgage specialist. 

She developed the multimedia resource Cultivating Trust — a book, study guide and video series — as a roadmap to reunification. She felt a call in her heart to develop this project in 2020 while reading Matthew 6. The seminal chapter of Matthew’s Gospel contains Jesus’ wisdom about not being ruled by worry (25-34).

Advertisement

Van Noppen contemplated this passage and began gravitating toward a theme of cultivating trust. The appeal of cultivation was influenced by her upbringing on a farm in Niagara as she saw this process at work time and time again.

Along with reflecting upon what it means to cultivate trust, she wants to serve as a voice “that understands and is practical.” While the guide in particular offered some tools for tracking spending and building a cushion during times of emergency, the crux is highlighting Jesus’ thoughts about money and how God through His Son and Holy Spirit is inviting us into a deeper relationship with Him through finances. 

“God's not coming with an audit,” she quipped. "He’s not like a CRA that we're all terrified of, right? Sometimes I think we approach God in the same way, and I'm hoping that they see that God through Christ and His Spirit are just approachable. He’s wanting to help them.” 

One of the frameworks van Noppen is promoting to spark a conversation with God is the “Three Jars”: one for giving, another for saving and the last for spending. The idea is to talk to God about how much should be allocated to each

One must have a good idea about the income coming in and their expenditures to possess a firm understanding of how much could be devoted to each jar, she explained. And the “foundational tenets” of this approach remain consistent during times of economic strain as they would during periods of greater abundance.

Advertisement

"You give some, you save some and you spend some,” said van Noppen. “You may think you don't have anything to give, but God says otherwise. You have time, talent, resources, cash. Even if it's just $5. Five dollars to God can be like $500,000 to Him. They're just zeros, and He knows where everybody's at, and what people can manage.”

The high level of personal and societal debt and the soaring food insecurity driving millions of new people to rely on parish or community-based food programs are among the pieces of evidence showing the “world’s systems are breaking down,” said van Noppen. 

Amid this landscape that urges the faithful and spiritually curious to look towards God when the worldly systems are presenting setbacks, van Noppen said the Bible is the best avenue for discovering who He is. 

“He’s saying ‘I want to be a part of your journey,’ ” said van Noppen. “'And if you open the Word, I'll show you.’ His Spirit interacts with His Word and then it becomes like a light or a fire inside of you that will only grow if you let Scripture reading, prayer or other spiritual disciplines feed you.”

Zacchaeus, the wealthy chief tax collector of Jericho whom Jesus spots in a tree and asks to be invited into his home, is a Biblical exemplar of the financial relationship we should strive to emulate with Christ, said Van Noppen.

The man who was scorned by those around him for how he greedily accumulated wealth at the expense of others opened himself up to the transformation that comes from embracing Christ. He vowed to give away his horde and he was told by Christ (Luke 19) that day that “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Van Noppen also finds great inspiration in the account where Jesus fed the multitude with five loaves and two fish presented to the disciples by a young boy. 

Advertisement

“When you come with your five loaves and two fish, he takes it and he multiplies it,” she said. “I think He's multiplying it. My expectation is that He'll multiply it, but I won't necessarily see it. It’s not my seed, it’s His.”

Learn more at cultivatingtrust.ca. 

(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)

A version of this article appeared in the October 25, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Give some, save some, spend some".