Easily Swayed by ‘Deals’? I have the solution!

Speaker A00:00:28

Hey, do you ever step into a new year with hope in your chest? I'm talking about firing your heart, determined that this year everything changes. And then almost instantly, you're ambushed.Suddenly the sales hit, those limited time offers hit, the credit card promos hit. And every quick money shortcut promises this will fix everything.Just buy one more thing and before you know it, that strong start you prayed for starts slipping right through your fingers. Let me tell you something honest. It's not discipline, it's not desire. It's the flood of temptation that shows up the moment we try to do better.January is full of possibilities, but it's also full of traps. Because marketers know you're hopeful. They know you're tired of last year's struggle.And they know exactly how to pull you back into those old habits before you even realize it's happening. But here's the hope. It's real. Boundaries built now beat battles fought later.Today I'm going to show you the simple guardrails that protect your peace, your focus and and your wallet long before temptation ever knocks on the door. Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Ralph. Thank you so much for joining me today, helping you break that cycle of financial shame with confidence.And a listener recently told me, ralph, I get sucked into sales, those credit card offers, those quick money ideas, those limited time deals, all of it. I don't want to fall for these traps again this year. How do I resist it before it cost me my peace and my money?And friend, if that's you, you're not broken. Guess what? You're targeted. Every January we see spikes in credit card promotion. We see them everywhere. Those instant loans subscription specials.Gotta have those flashy limited time deals. He Invest now offers the Amazon Essentials. First Corinthians 10:13 says, no temptation has overcome you except what is common.And God will provide you a way out. That's your bedrock. See, temptation is predictable. But guess what? God's escape routes are predictable too.And I've watched families avoid financial traps by building simple pre decided guardrails. That's what we're going to talk about today. And I personally use these escape plans that protected me from regret.And I can tell you from experience, you can't trust your willpower in the moment, but you can sure trust the plan. And one listener created a simple temptation plan. I love this one. We're going to lean into this today. A temptation plan. This is what they did.They unscribed from all promo emails. If they got an email that was promoting something they unsubscribed.Another thing they did, they used that pause, that 24 hour rule before they purchased anything. Now listen, I'm gonna tell you right now, some people better take a 48 or 72 hour, hey, maybe a week for you.The other thing they did is they required what they called a 30 day cooling off period before taking on any new debt. I love that we're gonna talk about that a little bit today. Here's what the results were. Their spending drop, their peace rose. Guess what?Their heart felt lighter. And their freedom didn't come from trying harder. It came from deciding earlier and having a plan. So the real question is this.How do you resist that financial temptation before they show up so that you can continue to walk in freedom and not frustration in the upcoming year? Let's walk through it. Here are my four temptation breakers. Number one, name your temptations before they ambush you.You can't fight what you don't acknowledge. Here's the thing I've learned. Temptations usually follow emotional triggers. Things like stress. When we're stressed, we buy. We have that temptation.Things like loneliness. When we're feeling bad about ourselves, we feel by ourselves. Or hey, maybe for you it's just pure boredom. You're doing that desk roll at night.I'm bored. I'm gonna buy something. But when you name those, it removes the shame.And as I've said on this show a million times, that awareness shrinks the power when you name it. A known temptation is a weakened temptation. If you speak weakens it.Second thing, set those boundaries with the Unsubscribe spending caps 24 hour rule. Those boundaries will beat the willpower you're going to struggle with. This willpower is not easy.You have people who are spending millions upon millions of dollars to make you want stuff. This is what they do. They are temptation experts. But if you unsubscribe from those promo emails, guess what? You're not going to be tempted.If you set those spending caps for those trigger categories when you're feeling alone, when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling bored, if you've got that cap, you've got that 24 hour pause for non essentials. Those boundaries don't restrict you, they protect you. Set those boundaries. Number three thing, pre decide responses to debt and those deal pitches.It's not the time to improvise in the moment. If you try to improvise in a moment, guess what? Most of the time you're going to fail. I love what the client said.Debt decisions need a 30 day cooling off period. I love that one. If you're going to go into debt for something, you got to wait 30 days.I can think back now how many things I bought I didn't wait 30 days for, and now I'm paying debt for it. Because those pressure pitches, if you're seeing one of those pressure pitches, they automatically get. Not today, you get that pressure pitch.Not today. Ain't going to happen today. Because here's the thing, if it's a real opportunity, guess what?It's still going to be there when you're calm, when you're cool and you're collected. But that pre decision kills that regret before regret even has a chance to begin. And finally replace those lies with God's truth.Because here's the real answer to the question. Temptation feeds on comparison. It feeds on scarcity. It feeds on I need this to be happy. And it feeds on this deal is too good to pass up.Have you ever felt those things, oh, look what this person has. Yes, Ralph's going to rant about social media for a second, but it breeds comparison and it breeds that. Oh, if I get this, I want to be happy, Ralph.Oh, you don't understand, Ralph. This deal is too good to pass up. If I let it go, I. I'm going to miss out. But God's truth resets the heart.See, God teaches us some very important, fundamental things. Contentment is always greater than impulse. When you're contented, you don't feel those impulses so much.That stewardship is always greater than status. Yes, it's easy to be swayed by what's around you. Look at that beautiful car they have. Look at that vacation they went on.But are you living in God's stewardship for your life? And let me tell you right now, friend, peace is always greater than pressure. You want to stay out of pressure? Live in peace.And when you renew your mind, your desires change too. You want to change your desires, change your mind, renew your mind, live in faith. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 5.Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. You hear a theme there. Contentment. Contentment is that shield that kills comparison and impulse. You want to beat this game before it even starts?Find contentment. How about we pray together? Lord, help me to recognize temptation before it grabs me. Help me to name it, Help me to speak to it.Help me to have a plan and escape. You promised me, Lord, that you'll always give us an escape.So give Me, contentment rooted in you, not stuff, Lord, Help me to see the value and the stewardship and the provision you've already given me, Lord, and when I feel tempted, give me the strength to take that escape route that you've already provided for me. Help me to see it, Lord, in that darkness, in that temptation, help me to see the escape route that you've already provided.You promised it in your word, Lord. And I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, so here's today's practical and simple action item.I want you to write out your own temptation escape plan. It doesn't have to be complicated, just a couple of things. Maybe for you it's that impulse buying. You're battling that impulse buying.You said, ralph, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to set that 24 hour rule. Maybe it's 48 hours, maybe it's longer. If that's battling you, write it down.Maybe for you it's those sales emails. You're like, ralph, I heard what you said loud and clear. What a great idea. I'm going to unscribe today.I'm going to unsubscribe so many times the mail servers are going to crash because they're going to be like his person's unsubscribing to everything. Great idea. Maybe for you it's that debt offer. You live in that comparison trap. You're like, oh, I could go in debt. I could get this. Maybe for you.Set that 30 day waiting period, put it on your laptop, put it on your phone, put it wherever temptation shows up because you can battle this if you have that escape plan, so do that today. And while you're at it today, I would love for you to join our community.It's a place where we have encouragement and we guides and we help keep you grounded. We practice gentle accountability. We celebrate those wise choices, not shame mistakes. We walk together in spiritual and financial freedom.Now, we're still a small community and it's totally free to join. And if you want a place where you can interact, where you can exchange ideas and grow together, come be part of it from the beginning.Come to FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com/join again. That's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com/Join. You're stronger than your temptation and God always provides an escape.You don't have to be swayed, you don't have to be pressured and you don't have to be pulled in every direction. With every clear boundary and a content heart. You can walk this year with confidence and peace, you can do this. Be a financially confident Christian.I have confidence in you. You can overcome these temptations. You can do this. So stay financially savvy. God bless you, and I hope to see you on tomorrow's show.