[Note: This is Part 2 of “The Borrowed Life”, a 4-part series about consumer culture, financial anxiety, and the sufficiency of Christ.]

It’s 3:17 a.m. Sarah lies awake in bed, phone screen glowing in the darkness. She’s checking her bank balance again–she already knows the number, but she checks anyway. The mortgage is due in four days. The credit card minimum payment cleared yesterday, leaving just enough to cover groceries if she’s careful. The phone screen dims, and she sees her reflection: forty-two years old, eyes tired, chest tight. She’s been here before. She’ll be here again tomorrow night.

What Sarah doesn’t know is that she’s not alone in this moment. Across the country, millions of Americans are lying awake right now, doing the same math, feeling the same fear. Financial anxiety and faith rarely feel like they belong in the same conversation. But they may be more connected than we think.

Inside the 3 A.M. Economy

The numbers tell a story the church cannot afford to ignore. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans–69%–report that financial uncertainty has made them feel depressed and anxious, an 8-point increase from just two years ago.^[1] Eighty-seven percent say they feel anxious about their finances, and 79% say it has gotten worse in 2025.^[2] But these are not just statistics. These are people who cannot sleep. These are marriages under strain. These are workers whose concentration falters because the mental calculator never stops running.

The data reveals something deeper than simple economic stress. Sixty-three percent report that financial anxiety has disrupted their sleep. Seventy-seven percent say it has strained their personal relationships. Seventy percent experience this anxiety more than once a week–which means for most Americans, financial fear is not an occasional visitor but a steady companion.

“Behind every inflation statistic is a real person lying awake at night,” Ted Guastello, CEO of AMFM Healthcare, observed in a 2025 survey.^[3] That’s the reality: seven in ten Americans told CBS News in December that they were struggling to pay for food, housing, and health care.^[4] One-third expect their finances to worsen in the year ahead. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged in December that “we’re going to need to have some years where nominal wages are higher than inflation for people to start feeling good about affordability.”^[5]

The economic context is real. The struggle is not imaginary. And the church must see it clearly–not as a failure of faith, but as a valley many believers are walking through right now.

The Psalmist understood this place. “I have calmed and quieted my soul,” he wrote in Psalm 131, “like a weaned child with its mother.” But that calm did not come easily. It was hard-won, forged in the furnace of real distress. The psalm does not promise the absence of difficulty–it testifies to the possibility of trust in the middle of it.

The Shame Layer

But there’s another dimension to financial anxiety that makes it uniquely difficult for many believers to navigate: shame. Forty-four percent of Americans told WalletHub in 2025 that they believe their financial status defines their self-worth.^[6] In a culture that equates success with net worth, financial struggle feels like personal failure.

That perception intensifies inside church walls where prosperity gospel echoes linger. When “God will provide” functions as a formula rather than a promise, it becomes a weapon of shame for those whose provision has not arrived as expected. The implicit message: if you’re struggling financially, something must be wrong with your faith. If you really trusted God, you wouldn’t be in this situation. If you were walking closely with him, he would bless you.

This theology is not the gospel. It is a distortion of it.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man who stored up wealth for himself and said to his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” God’s response was blunt: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:19-20). The man’s error was not that he had wealth–it was that he thought wealth made him secure. He set his hope on “the uncertainty of riches” (1 Timothy 6:17) rather than on God.

The gospel explicitly decouples financial status from spiritual health. Worth is not defined by the abundance of possessions. Paul instructs those who are rich “not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). The same God who warns against placing hope in riches is the one who provides. Security comes from him, not from what we own.

Financial struggle does not indicate God’s displeasure any more than financial prosperity indicates his favor. Job was righteous and suffered catastrophic financial loss. Solomon was wicked and lived in wealth beyond measure. The correlation the prosperity gospel promises simply does not exist in Scripture.

What does exist is a God who sees, knows, and cares for his people–whether they are in abundance or in need.

Financial Anxiety and Faith: What Fear Reveals

Financial anxiety, at its root, is not primarily about money. It is about trust.

The 3 a.m. dread is not actually “will I pay my bills?”–though that is the surface question. The deeper question, the one causing the tightness in the chest and the racing thoughts, is this: “Is there a God who holds this, and will I be okay?”

That’s a heart-level issue. It’s what Proverbs 20:5 calls “deep water”–the purposes of the heart lying beneath conscious awareness. Financial anxiety reveals what we actually believe about God’s character and his care. Do we believe he knows our situation? Do we believe he is good? Do we believe he can be trusted with a future we cannot control?

Jesus addressed this directly in the Sermon on the Mount. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25). Note what Jesus does not say. He does not say “your anxiety is irrational” or “you shouldn’t feel afraid.” He acknowledges the reality–food, clothing, survival needs are real. What he addresses is the foundation underneath the anxiety: who is in control, and can he be trusted?

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26). The argument Jesus makes is from the lesser to the greater: if God feeds sparrows–who contribute nothing to their own survival–how much more will he care for his children, whom he loves?

This is not a promise that God will give you what you want or even what you think you need. It is a declaration that your Father knows what you need (Matthew 6:32), and he can be trusted. The anxiety underneath financial fear is the fear of abandonment–that you are alone in this, that no one is watching, that everything depends on you. The gospel answers: you are not alone. The one who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all–how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

That does not mean God will make you financially comfortable. It means that whatever comes, you have a Father who knows, who cares, and who has already demonstrated the extent of his love by the cross. Paul learned this secret in both abundance and need: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

The contentment Paul describes is not a natural temperament. It is learned. It is practiced. And it is rooted not in financial stability but in the sufficiency of Christ.

“Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul writes, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). The peace Paul describes is not the absence of financial difficulty. It is a peace that transcends circumstance–a settled confidence that God is good, God is sovereign, and God is near, even when the bank account is not where you wish it were.

What the Church Owes People in Financial Fear

Here is what the data reveals about isolation: 76% of Americans say they feel alone in managing money-related worries.^[7] Three-quarters of the country is lying awake at 3 a.m., feeling like they are the only one.

That should break the church’s heart.

The body of Christ is supposed to be the community that bears one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Financial shame should find no more fertile ground in the church than sexual shame or addiction shame–which is to say, it should encounter grace, honesty, and shared struggle rather than judgment.

James writes with startling directness: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16). Faith that does not express itself in tangible care for those in need is dead faith.

This does not mean the church becomes a financial planning service. It means the church becomes a place where financial struggle can be named without shame, where people in genuine need find practical help, and where the isolating silence around money is broken. It means older believers mentoring younger ones in financial wisdom. It means deacons aware of who in the congregation is quietly drowning. It means small groups where someone can say “I’m terrified about money right now” and find not judgment but prayer and presence.

The church cannot fix the economy. But the church can be a community where financial anxiety does not have to be carried alone.

A Word to the Person Still Awake

If you are reading this at 3 a.m., phone in hand, chest tight with fear–this is for you.

Jesus sees you. He knows the number you just checked. He knows the bill you cannot pay and the decision you are dreading. And he entered this world not in comfort but in poverty. “Though he was rich,” Paul writes, “yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He knows what it is to have nothing. He knows what it is to depend entirely on the Father’s provision.

The gospel does not promise that your financial situation will resolve tomorrow. It promises something deeper: that you have a Father who knows what you need, who has already given the greatest gift as proof of his care, and who will not abandon you in the valley. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all–how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

You are not alone. Your worth is not defined by your bank balance. And the God you serve is not surprised by your circumstance or absent from it.

The anxiety is real. The fear is understandable. But the gospel speaks a word that goes deeper than the fear: you are held. You are known. You are loved. And that will not change, no matter what the bank statement says.

Questions for Reflection

• How has financial anxiety affected your spiritual life? In what ways have you experienced shame around money in church contexts?
• When you think about Matthew 6:25-34 (do not be anxious), does it feel like good news or like an impossible standard? Why?
• What would it look like for you to bring your financial fears to God honestly in prayer rather than trying to manage them alone?
• If you are currently in financial difficulty, who in your life knows? What would it take to break the isolation and ask for help or prayer?
• How might the church better care for those experiencing financial anxiety without either prosperity gospel promises or moralistic judgment?

Prayer Points

• For Those in Financial Fear: Pray for those lying awake at 3 a.m. worrying about money, that God would help them trust that He sees, knows, and holds their future, and give them courage to bring this fear to Him honestly rather than trying to manage it alone.
• For Freedom from Shame: Pray that believers struggling financially would be freed from the lie that financial difficulty indicates spiritual failure, and that they would know their worth is defined by Christ’s love, not their bank balance.
• For Church Leaders: Pray that pastors and ministry leaders would create environments where financial anxiety can be named without judgment, and would lead with grace rather than prosperity gospel formulas.
• For the Church Community: Pray that local churches would become places where those in financial distress find practical help and genuine care, reflecting the gospel through tangible burden-bearing and breaking the isolation that financial shame creates.

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^[1]Northwestern Mutual, “Nearly 70% of Americans Say Financial Uncertainty Has Made Them Feel Depressed and Anxious, According to Northwestern Mutual 2025 Planning and Progress Study,” press release, June 3, 2025, https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2025-06-03-Nearly-70-of-Americans-Say-Financial-Uncertainty-Has-Made-Them-Feel-Depressed-and-Anxious,-According-to-Northwestern-Mutual-2025-Planning-Progress-Study

^[2]AMFM Healthcare, “Financial Anxiety Surges as Americans Confront 2025 Economy, AMFM Healthcare Survey Finds,” PR Newswire, July 24, 2025, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/financial-anxiety-surges-as-americans-confront-2025-economy-amfm-healthcare-survey-finds-302512613.html

^[3]AMFM Healthcare, “Financial Anxiety Surges as Americans Confront 2025 Economy, AMFM Healthcare Survey Finds,” PR Newswire, July 24, 2025, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/financial-anxiety-surges-as-americans-confront-2025-economy-amfm-healthcare-survey-finds-302512613.html

^[4]Erin Doherty, “What will the U.S. economy look like in 2026? Experts weigh in on 5 key questions,” CBS News, December 31, 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/economy-2026-outlook-affordability-rates-jobs-markets/

^[5]Ibid.

^[6]John Kiernan, “Money stress weighs heavily on Americans, survey finds,” WalletHub via WFSB, October 13, 2025, https://www.wfsb.com/2025/10/13/money-stress-weighs-heavily-americans-survey-finds/

^[7]Talker Research/Doctor on Demand by Included Health, “Financial Anxiety at an All-Time High as Americans Struggle With Access to Care,” press release, May 5, 2025, https://includedhealth.com/announcements/financial-anxiety-at-an-all-time-high-as-americans-struggle-with-access-to-care/