EP 18 Let's Talk about Money, What does God Say about Finances, Becoming Rich, Being a Successful Working Woman and a Great Mom & Wife!

Wholly Made Life™- ReClaim your Whole Life, Tap into God-Sized Fulfillment for the Success Driven Woman, Mama, Wife, Sister

EP 18 Let’s Talk about Money! What does God say about finances, becoming rich, and successful working women?

Well, we're going to talk about money today. We're going to talk about money. We're going to talk about what God has to say about finances. And We're going to talk about what you can do and your Piece of the pie for your finances. Let's get into it.

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Okay girls today, we're going to talk about “Money, Money, Money, Money” .

I don’t own the copyrights to that song and I'm sure it sounded nothing like what that song is supposed to sound like anyway. Well, we're going to talk about money today. We're going to talk about money. We're going to talk about what God has to say about finances. And We're going to talk about what you can do and your Piece of the pie for your finances. Let's get into it.

Hey ladies, Welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life™. This is episode 18, and we're just going to talk about the financial pie today. And we're really just going to talk about what are the beliefs that you have around money, especially related to a equip a Christian view of what it is you've learned throughout your life about money. So I know there's that famous scripture that a lot of people have used to say that money. You shouldn't go after money and you, it's not okay to be rich and that kind of thing. So first Timothy 6: 10 talks about for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. So it's important to note, number one, that this says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.

It doesn't say that the money itself is evil. Money is just a vehicle. Money is just a tool. It's a resource to use, uh, much like if you have an idol and you are worshiping a golden calf, that statue itself by itself is not evil. The worshiping of that statue is evil. The act of worship for that idol, which is that gold star golden calf is the sin. Okay. So much like money is not sinful or evil in of itself. It's just a tool, but the love of money, which is greed is a sin. Okay. So, I think it was Dave Ramsey that said being rich will just amplify who you are, that means good or bad. So if you are a greedy person and you're not a giving person, then you will be more of that with the more money that you have, because you will use that tool or that vehicle in a way that doesn't line up with what the word of God says.

That's a lot easier to say that money is evil, especially if you don't have it, because then there's kind of an excuse of, well, I don't need it because it's evil, but it also takes out our responsibility to work for money or work for what we earn it's takes away that need to be disciplined with that resource. So if you've got the mindset that, well, I don't have money and it's okay because I don't want the trouble that comes with money. Well, then that just means that we're not the responsibility and using the discipline, using what it is that God has blessed us with. There will be poor always, and there will be rich, always. The other thing too, is that when you think about rich and the definition, that's all in perspective, the reality is a lot of people in the United States, regardless of their circumstances, are rich compared to someone in another country.

For example, I think I saw a stat, something like, you know, for every one person, uh, with an average salary of 20,000 or something like that per year, it's 160. People are in poverty in Bangladesh, I think is what the it was looking at. But the point is, is that what is rich? What even is that? What does that look like to you? Because there are different ways and the scripture talks about this as well. There are different way, ways to be rich. Rich doesn't have to equal money or, uh, things. There's another scripture in Matthew 19, it talks about it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. So that's another popular scripture that people bring up, but that was in context to a young, rich ruler who was not able to give up what God asked him to give up.

It wasn't about his riches. It was about his inability to give up what God asked him to give up or what Jesus asked him to give up, give up all your belongings and things and come follow me. He wasn't able to choose at that point Jesus, over his materials, which means he held those materials in money, in as an idol. Okay. So that's the difference, understanding that it is not about the tool. It's not about how much money you have. It's about what you do with it and what heart you're doing it with. It is no secret that God asked us to give. There are. So, I mean, there are hundreds of scriptures about money. Deuteronomy 8:18 It says, you shall remember the Lord, your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant, that he sort of your fathers as it is this day, Philippians four 19 says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory, in Christ.

So the money and the blessing and the favor and all of your things come from God in the first place. So that's the other thing is that remembering that what you already have has been given to you as a gift from God, and he will only give us what we are ready and disciplined enough to steward. There's a lot of scripture about borrowing. It's clear that we are directed to not put ourselves in so much debt that we are in slaved to the lender. Proverbs 22:7 says the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender, Romans 13: 19, Oh, no one. Anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law and Psalms 37:21 is the wicked borrows, but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gifts. So that's where we're being told to give that speaks to not that we're bad people, if we have to take a loan on something, but it's about the discipline and the stewardship in which we choose to do those things.

So it's just about being mindful about what it is we are asking to borrow and what it's for 1 Corinthians 16: 12 says on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come. So that's about saving and being disciplined. Again, being disciplined with the money that we've been blessed with. Finally, the, this whole point about giving. If we have been blessed with a lot of money, a lot of materials, this also includes our gifts that we've been given. Then we are to give to others. It's always better to receive, to give than to receive. That's an acts 20 to 35. It's always blessed. It's more blessed to give than to receive. If we have a mindset of that, it's about, we should always be looking at, are we putting our money as an idol?

I'll use my personal example. When I felt that God was asking me to leave my position and my job, my salary, and give it to an offering to him as I processed that and prayed about sought counsel on that from a few of my close people that I trust that will give me the feedback I need. That's also in alignment with God's word. It was about what I was placing as an idol in my job, my career, I was in a sense idolizing that that had become what I trusted in. I trusted my job to provide for me. I trusted myself to provide for me. I depended on my own actions and gifts that I had been given by God, my own actions to ensure that we were provided for that became an idol. It wasn't that the salary was bad. In fact, I believe that I was blessed with that position when it got to the point where that I was trusting that as my provision, in my own actions, it was revealed to me that that was like an idol in my life.

So I had to be reminded that he would provide for me and that I needed to put him first when we're out, trying to make money. Yes, that is an end result of what happens for paid for the value that we provide in the workflow, in the workplace. Or if we have a business, we are paid for the value that we provide to others. And so we get compensated for that. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem Proverbs 31 woman, profited from providing value in the marketplace with things that she made with her hands and trading that she did, there's nothing wrong with that. It says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So if you get into a place where you're forgetting, who's providing that blessing in that favor in the first place, then you might be in a place where you need to reassess and make sure if you're stewarding what he's given you in the way that's in alignment with God, I'm not going to get into tithing necessarily in this episode.

But I do think that it's worth your time to pray about how much should you be giving back to God, whether that's through ministry that you're paying, paying into or a donation to a charity or to your church. Certainly if you have a church house that you go to, you should be pouring back into that church house, because that's where you're going to get fed spiritually and scripturally. That certainly shouldn't be the only place that you're getting that, but that's the community in which you guys are supporting and supported that you receive the word of God. So, and you should support the ministries that your community plays a part in. I think that's a part of our responsibility. When we are blessed with money, we should be spending that money to give back to God and whatever that means for you. You have to pray about that and understand what percentage that should be, where you should focus that money.

There is plenty of evidence in the Bible that we should be giving back to God. And that's another way that we can show that we trust him in providing for us. It says that it'll come back to us many times over when we give, okay, so actionable items about finances. Number one, write down on a piece of paper. What are the top five things that you believe about money? And then once you have those things, assess where those are coming from, and if they're based in truth, then great. If they're based in information that may or may not be in alignment with the truth, then those are the things you got to look at and see what behaviors are coming out of those beliefs. Okay. For example, if you, aren't giving a portion of your money back to supporting something from God church, a non-profit sponsoring a child, whatever it is that you pray about and decide, that's how you're going to give back to God.

If you're not doing that, why is that? Is it that you don't trust in the provision that you've been given? Is it that you don't think that you'll have enough? Is it that you love your money and you don't want to give it away? Assess why it is you are holding on to that. Okay. That's just an example. If you think that money is evil or you've realized that money is evil, then get into the Bible and read about that or seek some counsel about why it is you believe that and what you can do differently to steward what it is God's giving you. And to actually go out and increase, because if we are in abundance, then we can give to others abundantly. And I believe that that's what God wants. I believe God wants us to receive from him so that it's overflowing.

If it's overflowing and we have a heart of giving and love for God and love for our brothers and sisters, then we would want to give our overflow. And that will only enhance the kingdom here on earth. Here's another tip that I would give you related to money. And it would be to make sure that you have a savings of at least $1,000. Now some of you may be saying, Oh my goodness, I'm living paycheck to paycheck as it is. I can't even fathom having a thousand dollars savings, but just start small. Think about what are you doing every single week that you could go without, for example, a Starbucks, can you do a coffee at home instead and say that six, seven, eight, nine bucks. And if you're getting two or three of those a week, then a month worth of Starbucks, think about how much that could be in a savings account.

The key is for savings is that you always want to have a thousand dollars in a savings account in case something crazy happens with health, with a, like a copay you have to pay, um, with health insurance, uh, ER, visit, or let's say you need a new battery on your car, new brakes, whatever. If you have a thousand bucks in a savings account that takes the pressure off and you are so much more able to steward your finances in a way that is not from a lack mentality, I guess, or anxiety driven situation. When you're faced with an emergency, I've had this for the past, probably four years where I've had a thousand dollars in savings that I do not touch, unless there has been some sort of emergency. And let me tell you something, there have been several we've had to buy a new engine.

We've had to buy a new set of tires. We had to buy a new water heater, an MRI that we had to get and pay for out of pocket. So when you have a thousand bucks sitting in your savings account that, you know, you can use for emergencies. And what I do is write down what kinds of things constitute an emergency so that I don't touch it. And I also have an account that I don't have a debit card attached to. I don't have any way to get to it without having to go to the bank to get it. That keeps me from dipping into that. That would be a way to be responsible and use discipline in stewarding the money that God's giving us back to that if you have anything in your life that you can look at to say, okay, if I stopped getting a Starbucks and I only got one once a week, then how much money would that be?

And let me put it into a savings until I hit a thousand bucks. And then of course you don't touch it until you've got that emergency. And once you have that emergency, then you start sacrificing one Starbucks a week or whatever it is for you. I don't even drink coffee y'all so I just know how much people spend on Starbucks. And it's like, Oh my gosh, that's a way that you can quickly get to a thousand bucks in your savings account. And I am telling you, it will take so much pressure off your back and so much anxiety away from a situation that might come up when you have to pay for that MRI or the brakes go out or whatever it is. Okay. Those are the two things. Write down what your beliefs are about money, figure out where they come from and then figure it, make sure you've got a thousand bucks in a savings account.

And then once you get that, then you start working on paying down whatever debts you might have, credit cards, et cetera. And I don't know if you've ever heard of Dave Ramsey's snowball to pay off quickly. So basically the debt snowball real quick. And we did this with all of our credit, except for we've got four things left. We've got the cars, we've got the house and I've got student loans that I'm still working on. Take a look at Dave Ramsey stuff. There's all kinds of stuff out there about the snow, that snowball. So that's the other thing that I would work on. As you know, I'm not working in a full-time job right now, I'm doing coaching. And by the way, you can get coaching. If you would like to get coaching, uh, half hour sessions and one hour sessions, and you are welcome to email me at Angie, [e-mail], but I'm doing coaching.

I'm doing some teaching and that kind of thing. So what has come in very handy is that I had worked these past said four, but probably about five years paying off everything saving so that when I was able to give up my job, give up that salary that we have, we are still, okay, God has provided. He has sent me some clients. He has sent me different opportunities that I can take a part in that still allows me to have the flexibility to be working from home. So it's been amazing that God has provided. He does what he says. He's going to do guys, listen, like I said, I still got cars and a house and student loan debt to pay off. So I'm still working on that as well. None of us have it exactly as we want it, but it's about making small steps.

So in your financial bucket or in your financial piece of pie, you've talked about what are your beliefs about money? You're working on making small steps so that you can get that thousand bucks in a savings and then you start working on your debt. Okay. And it doesn't have to be that overwhelming look at today. What you can do differently today, maybe you don't buy the Starbucks or today. Maybe you don't take that target run, which I don't know about you, but I can't get out of target under a hundred bucks. So I just don't go as much as possible. I've actually, I think I've been to target one time since I stopped. It's working full time, uh, in a nine to five in a corporate job. I do that on purpose. I do that intentionally because I know that it is hard for me to get out of target under a hundred bucks.

So anyway, just making some daily different steps that you can take like that. Okay. All right, ladies, make sure that you join us over in the Facebook group, because that is a community of women that are supporting each other in each area of our lives. None of us have it all together in any parts of our, and every parts of our life, but all of us have strengths and areas for growth that we can either help someone else with. If it's our strength or we can receive from others whose strengths are maybe our areas of growth. Okay. All right, ladies, I'll see. On the inside of the group.

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