How Can I Practice Grace When My Financial Habits Aren’t Perfect?

Speaker A00:00:00

I got a great question from a listener the other day. She said, Ralph, I start strong with my money. I do my budgeting, I do my saving. I track every single dollar.But then I slip, I overspend, I forget to track. And then that inner critic seems to scream, you failed. You're just not good with the money. Why do I even bother?Friend, let me tell you right now, if you felt like that too. I tell you what I know. I have many times, more times than I want to even count. And here's a crazy part. Do you know this?Studies show that nearly 80% of people quit their financial plan after just one mistake. Just give it up. One mistake. 80% say, I'm done with this. It's not because the plan doesn't work. Sometimes it's not about the plan at all.It's because that shame convinces them that they failed. But here's the truth. Perfection isn't the goal. It never was the goal. Grace is the real power and it's the real source for progress.And let's talk about that on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian.I'm Ralph, and this is the show every day where I help you become a financially confident Christian. And what a great question to start the show today. And if you're like me, you're listening right now. Maybe you're watching on YouTube.You said, Ralph, I've blown my budget before. Listen, I've swiped that card and thought, why did I just do that? And I know that shame firsthand.But the other side of it is I know that God doesn't leave us in that shame. That's one of the beautiful things about this show. It's not just about leaving you out there in that shame.It's all about breaking that cycle of financial shame and doing it with confidence. And if we have God on our side, who can ever stand against us? But God invites us into grace. And that grace changes everything. I'll tell you what.I. I had a client once. He tracked every single penny that she spent. I'm talking list and spreadsheets. She used stuff. I did all of those things.I mean, she had her stuff down to the penny until one month she slipped. And I'll never forget it, she called me one day, she says, ralph, I missed a bill. And then all of a sudden, she overspent on her groceries.Instead of getting back in, starting over again. She just quit. She said, I remember, I'll never get this phone call. She said, Ralph, if I can't do it perfectly, why do I even try?You might be listening right now. You thinking, Ralph, I feel the exact same way. Listen, to be honest with you, I felt that way many times. You have a setback.And listen, we're all going to have setbacks. It's part of life. You have a setback. If I can't do this perfectly, I'm just giving up. Does that sound familiar to you?So when I sat down and I work with her, and this is the real lesson for today, what we had to do was we had to shift that thinking. So many people think it's about perfection. Listen, I'm a perfectionist.I thought it was about perfection for the longest time, but it's not about perfection. Perfection will make you crazy. He'll make you say, Ralph, I'm not doing this anymore. I give up. It's not about giving up. It's about progress.And with that progress comes something beautiful from scripture, and that's grace. Because that's what really works. That's what really solves these problems.So one of the first things I really want you to hear today, if you're listening right now, this is one of the things you can write down. Your financial life is a journey. It's not a test. So many people think they're in this test, this pass or fail test.God is going to give me a test, and if I fail, I'm done, pack my bags, I'm done. It's not going to work. But your financial life is a journey. I want you to hear that today because so many people are struggling right now.You might be struggling right now. You might be a Ralph.It seems like every time I start to work at this, I build that budget, I build that intentional spending plan, I start to save, I build that emergency fund. Then way more something happens. I feel like God's testing me. And a lot of people feel that way. It's their own self talk.So let me let you know a little secret. God isn't waiting for you to fail. He's not. He's not on the sideline going, well, I sure hope we're out fails today.It's not at all what he wants from us. He's walking right there alongside with you. He's helping you. You just have to reach out to him and say, lord, I need your help.Well, let's get right into scripture today. You know, I always like to talk about Scripture in the show. I'm going to get right to Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9.It says this beautiful scripture. It says, but he said to my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. What a powerful piece of scripture. My grace is sufficient for you. That's what the Lord is calling you to today.If you're struggling in your finances, if you feel like, why do I even try? I keep on falling behind. Just remember that. Write that down on your heart. Write that down where you can see it.My grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in your weakness. The Lord is saying to you, you're weak. He's not saying that to criticize you. He's not saying that because he's testing you or want you to fail.He's saying to you, my power makes your weakness work. It makes it perfect. And see, that's where the grace steps in, where shame used to rule.If you're living in this financial cycle of shame, I'm going to tell you right now, you don't have to live that way anymore. Grace can overtake that. And another thing I want you to hear today. Mistakes aren't the end of the story. They're just not.They're part of the learning process. I cannot tell you how many times I've made mistakes. Financially, maybe. Saying that's kind of crazy. Yes. I've been doing this for 30 years.I have advanced degrees in accounting and finance and money. And guess what? I make mistakes. And I make them routinely. My wife is constantly reminding me, ralph, you made a mistake.You might be feeling the same way. You make mistakes as well. But you need to hear this right now. Mistakes aren't the end. They're all part of the process.They're all part of that journey. What really matters. What really matters is you get back up. Which leads me to this beautiful piece of scripture as well.This is from Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 16. The righteous may fall seven times, but still get up. But the wicked will stumble into trouble. See, falling isn't failing so many people. I fall down.I skin my teeth. When I was a kid, I remember stubbing my toe. That's the worst possible thing. You watched every single step after that, didn't you?But what did you do? You got back up. I remember my dad teaching me how to ride a bike right on the sidewalk. He says, son, you can do this.He grabs a hold of the back of that scene, kind of pushes me along, and I know, well, he was intending that I was going to fall. And guess what I did about three feet later, home, down on the sidewalk, you know, scraped that arm up, did a good job on it.But dad was right there and he said, all right, let's try this again. Your finances are the same way. When you fall, it's not failing.But if you stay down, if you stay in that cycle of shame and that self talk, then you won't move forward. Accept the grace that God has given you. Because God is calling us to progress. He's not calling us to perfection. He's calling us for progress.He's calling us to do a little bit better than we did yesterday. He's not looking for perfection. If you're looking for perfection, I've said this on this show many times, you're never going to find perfection.Listen to this book of scripture from my favorite book of the Bible, Romans, chapter 8, verse 1. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that is so profitable today.When you belong to him, when you truly belong to Christ, that shame that you used to feel, that shame that you used to endure, it's got no power over your financial story either. Yes, I'm going to connect the dots. Christ doesn't want you to fail at your finances. He wants you to be successful in it.Because when you are successful, I say this all the time on this show, you will never truly bless somebody else till you get your own house in order. So guess what? Christ wants you to get your house in order to. But you've got to have grace to understand that you are going to fail sometimes.You are going to fall down, you are going to run that bike right into the sidewalk. That happens. That's part of the journey, that's part of life. But the question is, do you get back up and say, Lord, your grace is sufficient for me.So I want you to hear this right now. Grace is not an excuse to quit. You can't just stop. But grace is the reason that you keep going. Because every stumble is a chance to lean on him.And what did he promise in the scriptures? His grace is enough.And if this hits home for you today, I want to give you a special resources, something that I've been working on for the last few months. It's my third book. It's called How to Become a Financially Confident Christian. And it's yours absolutely free. You just go to my website.That's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com/becoming again. That's FinanciallyconfidentChristian.com/becoming. How about we pray together now? Lord, we come to you right now.We just thank You for your grace, Lord, an abundant grace that we have no ability to even understand. And Lord, we have to admit that we stumble with our money. Yes, we overspend. Yes, we forget.And Lord, oftentimes we feel that shame poured down upon us. But Lord, You remind us of something so beautiful. That is your grace is enough.So, Lord, I just ask You to listen and help my friend who's listening today work on letting go of that feeling of perfection. Lord, help them to stand up after mistakes. And, Lord, help them to walk in your freedom. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Friend,Remember this. You don't have to be perfect with money. I think it's so important. I'm going to say that again. You don't have to be perfect with money.You just need to keep walking in grace. Now, tomorrow's show, we're going to continue this journey together.We're going to talk about building momentum and we're going to ask the big, hairy, audacious question, what comes next? So make sure you join me on tomorrow's show. And if today's shows encourage you, I'm going to encourage you to do something for me.Why don't you share with somebody who feels stuck in that shame? You might know somebody who's really stuck right now. They're like, you're thinking to yourself, ralph, I know that person.I'm going to go, I'm going to send them a text. I'm going to send them an email because they're stuck in this. Just send them to our website.That's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com Again, that's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com and hey, if you've got a question for the show, it's real simple. Go to justaskralph.com and send your question in. And chances are it'll be features on this show. And remember, this is the show with no financial shame.So go out there and be a financially confident Christian. I have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself. Stay financially savvy. God bless you, and you have a great day today.