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REINVENTING THE PERSONAL FINANCIAL WHEEL
SESSION - 1
CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT MONEY (Part I)
The financial information in this site is designed to provide practical guides for managing your personal finances. It will provide basic steps in establishing a sound, disciplined approach to handling your money; tips on how to do it effectively; how to deal with debt; and sound suggestions for maintaining and sustaining financial control over the long term.
The intention is to present practical and workable tips for ordering your finances in accordance common-sense, Christian principles; and as we employ the principle of seed, time and harvest, you are guaranteed to see substantial improvement in your financial situation as time progresses
Although we readily recognize the indisputable part faith plays in the Christian life, we believe that common-sense is a gift of God given to all peoples, and many of our financial situations can be effectively managed with the use of common sense to bring glory to God through our own lives and sound Biblical principles. For example, if I am a compulsive or undisciplined spender, it is foolery not faith, to pray that God will help me liquidate my debts – God will not move my mountain while I keep on building it.
It is a truism that money affects us all, since it is by far the most common means of exchange for goods and services that play such vital roles in our daily lives.
Some statistics say that 85% of illnesses are caused by worries over finances and more than 50% of marriage breakdowns have their roots in disagreements over finances between couples.
It is even said that everyone can be bought. Every one has their price , they say.
Although our faces differ, under our exterior, the vast majority of people have similar concerns over money. In fact, it has been said that our generation is overly preoccupied with money. Our concerns and issues around money can be generally summed up in one or all of the following questions:
- Where to get enough of it?
- How to get more of it?
- How to keep what we do have?
- What to do with it?
I have heard someone say that the Bible speaks more about money than any other single subject and that money is mentioned in the Bible over 2000 times. I do not know if that is true, but it is clear that money affects us all. In fact sometimes, it affects some of us in more ways than we would like to admit.
TRUTH: Our habits for handling money are LEARNED, they are not instinctive.
Our society TEACHES us to get into debt, and to LIVE in debt. The general idea is ` I want what I want when I want it: ( I have a RIGHT to have it NOW!) regardless of what it may cost me tomorrow.’ It is fairly common place to see ads that promote “buy today but don’t pay for 6 months or until next year!” The obsession is that
For those who do not have a strong plan for financial control, such an opportunity is almost too good to pass up. Thus many continue the downward spiral of accumulating more debt in which to continue drowning.
It has been said that many of us borrow money to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like! As part of this ‘me first’ style of thinking, the new thought pattern is “I deserve to have it now!"
Note:
If, as Christians, we do not learn to break this cycle in our own lives we are destined to partake of the same fate as other overburdened debtors - frustration, anxiety, loss of peace of mind etc.
We must begin by changing the way we think about and handle money!
Our minds dictate EVERY ACTION we perform in life, so if we are going to change how we handle our money we must CHANGE OUR MINDS.
Jesus echoed the same thought in Matt 15:11, 17-20, and Mark 7: 20
TRUTH: God will change us only if we PERMIT HIM to do so. Isaiah 1:18,
Many of us pray for God to cancel our debts while we keep on spending at the same unreasonable rate that got us into trouble in the first place.
Remember that God cannot remove our mountain while we keep on building it!
Have you ever wondered why some Christians still have such ugly habits? One of the reasons may be because we have not allowed God to move into those areas of our lives to “sanctify” us. 1 Thess. 5:23.
TRUTH: God moves only into areas of our lives that we vacate for him and allow him into; and that includes how we handle our finances.
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