Am I really ready to live a life of smart and faithful stewardship?

Ralph00:00:00

You made 30 days of real progress, 30 days of intentional living. You've been budgeting, you've been praying, you've been adjusting and you've been growing.But now you're asking the deeper question, is this the end or is this just the beginning? Well, stick with me and let's talk about embracing this next season and stepping fully into a lifelong journey of stewardship.

Podcast Announcer00:00:23

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.

Ralph00:00:33

Hey there and welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and this is a moment to celebrate today. This is the final episode in our 30 day series, beyond the Budget.And over the past 30 episodes, we've walked through all kinds of great topics. We've talked about consumerism, we've discussed credit, we talked about finding contentment, we talked about doing things in your calling.We discussed ideas of generosity. We even talked about leaving a legacy. And also about living simplistically and so much more than that. But today, I want to bring it all together.And we're not talking about finishing, because that's the thing I want to make clear that you understand this isn't about finishing. We're talking about faithfully continuing. Because if we really examine ourselves, we've grown a lot.You've built habits and you've seen real transformation. But maybe you're also tired. Maybe you're wondering, hey, do I have to keep this up forever? Ralph, Ralph, what if I mess up and lose progress?And maybe you're asking this question right now. Is there ever a point where this gets easier? Well, you just found the danger. Thinking that financial stewardship has an endpoint is a danger.But here's what is true. And you need to understand this completely today. Stewardship is not a one time sprint. It's just not. It's not some quick race, you win. And hey, I'm.I've found stewardship and now I can move on. I wish it was, but it's not. I'd be lying to you if I told you otherwise. What stewardship is, is it's a lifelong journey of faith.It's a lifelong journey of wisdom. And honestly, it's a lifelong journey of grace. And here's the thing. I want you to be crystal clear and understanding.God didn't call you to be perfect. God never calls us to be perfect because guess what, spoiler alert. We're never going to be perfect. But what he did call us to be is faithful.And let's look at the word. And really, let's look into what he means when he says he calls us to be faithful. Let's start with the book of Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6.It says this being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. I love this verse. It talks about confidence, it talks about beginning a good work in you. And the best part will carry it on to completion.See what this really means if we want to get under the hood and look at this. It means that God finishes what he starts. Well, let's look at the book of Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 18 reminds us of this.The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining even brighter till the full light of day. What a great mental picture. You can picture this path of righteous, the morning sun coming up.And as the day is getting longer, it's getting brighter and brighter until the full light of day. And that should be encouraging to you. You're not walking in circles. You're moving forward.If you've been following along for this 30 days, or hey, maybe you've been listening for a couple years now, you are moving forward. You're moving step by step into more light, more peace, and hopefully more purpose. So no, this isn't about arriving today.I'm going to give you a different word to use. It's about abiding and it's about letting your financial life become part of your discipleship.So now you're asking the most logical question, what now, Ralph? Well, here's what now. It's time to commit to lifelong learning.It's time to commit to a regular review, and it's time to commit to grace filled stewardship. The best way I can encapsulate that is to let your habits become a spiritual rhythm, if you will, not just a strategy.So before you rush off to the next thing, and yes, we're going to get into a new series starting tomorrow. Let's take a minute right here, just the two of us. Let's talk about what it really means to embrace the journey.I use this term on the show frequently, this journey, because this journey you've been on, it matters. Let's talk about why it matters. Well, the first thing I want you to do is I want you to celebrate how far you've come.See, a lot of times it's easy to think about what's in front of us, but I really want to take a minute and think about where, where you've come from. Seriously. Think back about it. Maybe during this, this journey, you've opened that credit card bill, you'd been avoiding it.Ralph, I was never opening it up, but I did it. Maybe you stuck to your grocery budget for the whole month, or maybe just said no when it would have been easier to just say swipe. Yeah, spent.Those things count. That all counts. So I'm going to encourage you right now, if you want to continue on this journey, write down one or two things you've been proud of.Because when you're being honest with yourself, you've grown spiritually, you've grown practically, and you've grown emotionally. And that right there, that's worth pausing for. But now let's talk about growth, because that's part of this as well.Maybe as part of that growth, you now take your car in for maintenance. You don't wait till it breaks down. You learn your lesson on that. Well, your finances need the same care. There needs to be routine maintenance.So I'm going to encourage you right now, every few months, revisit your notes. Maybe you took notes during this series. Maybe you go back in and re listen to some of these episodes or go look at the blog posts.All those things are found@financiallyconfidentchristian.com I'm going to encourage you to review your budget, see what's working. Hey, see what's not working. As I've said many times on the show, budgets aren't cast in stone. They're not chiseled in stone.They're meant to be living documents. And one of the things I would really encourage you to do is maybe once a year, pick up a solid book or. Or listen to a new podcast on stewardship.Just do something that reminds you that you're not managing money alone. One of the big parts of my show is I want you to always understand you're not alone on this. I'm here with you.But bigger than me, you're walking with God in it. And now here's another practical, powerful practice, and that's take a financial. Sabbath mentioned this on the show a couple days ago.Once a month, maybe once a quarter, just pause. Just take a pause. Not to budget, but to actually breathe.Make time to pray and ask yourself, because we've got to constantly be thinking about where we are on the journey. So ask yourself, where's my heart right now? That's a tough question, but ask yourself, where's my heart? Where's my heart on this journey?Am I still buying into all of this? Ask yourself the next question. Are my habits still lining up with my values? We took a lot of time and talked about building those values.You knew what you stood for. And it's easy to sort of backslide, if you will. It's easy to kind of forget about those things.So ask yourself, are my habits still lining up with these values? And the most logical question next is, what needs to shift?Maybe you've taken this financial Sabbath, you sat back and like, wow, I just didn't realize I'd gotten quite that far off course. But as part of that, also, give yourself space to reset and do that without guilt. You're going to make mistakes. So finally, give yourself grace.I don't know how many people get down on themselves because they don't give themselves grace. Because here's the truth. You're going to overspend sometimes. If you're a human being, you're going to overspend. You're going to make mistakes.You're going to feel stuck. Listen, I've been doing financial work for 30 years. Guess what? I make mistakes.There are weeks, months, sometimes even a couple of months at a time where I feel really stuck. And there are times, if I'm being totally honest with you, listening right now, there's times when I wonder if I'm getting anywhere at all.I feel like I'm just kind of on that treadmill, just running in place. But, friend, grace says something very strong. And I want you to hear this loud and clear. The beauty of grace says this.You still get to try again and again and again. Because remember, this isn't about perfection. As I said a few minutes ago, you're never gonna attain perfection. If you're looking for that, stop now.You're never gonna get there. But what it is about is progress. It's about walking it out with God right beside you.And now you might be saying, Ralph, well, why does all this matter? I'm going to tell you right now why it matters.And the God part is so very important, because when you anchor your finances in faith, a lot of people don't get that. The secular world doesn't understand why I do this show. The secular world doesn't understand the faith component to this.But when you anchor your finances in faith, you stop chasing that approval. So many of us find ourselves in that approval trap.We're trying to find approval from something or someone or doing something, and you stop living in shame. One of the things, the main cornerstones of this show is how to break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.And it matters because you start building a life that tells the story of God's faithfulness. Because I want to tell you something that you need to hear right now.Because maybe you're at the end of this 30 days, you're like, Ralph, yeah, I'm still struggling, man. I'm still having day to day struggles with this. I want you to hear this. You're doing better than you think.The fact that you're listening right now, that you're this far into this particular episode, you're doing better than you think. And I'm just going to encourage you right now. Keep going.And I'm going to continue to be right here with you every single day, bringing you more ways to break that cycle of financial shame. How about we pray together? Father God, thank you for the journey you've led us on.You are the one who begins every good work and the one who carries it to completion. And Lord, if we're being honest, we confess that sometimes we do chase that perfection.We try to be perfect, Lord, and we forget the most valuable part. We forget to rest in your grace. So, Lord, right now I want you to just help us to walk with wisdom, Lord, and not with weariness.Help us to not be weary. Give us vision for the long road, Lord, and joy in those daily steps in that journey.And we just ask that you let our lives reflect your glory through faithful, joyful, lifelong stewardship. And we ask this in confidence in Jesus name, amen. So, friend, I just want to say congratulations. You've completed this beyond the Budget series.But your journey has just begun. So I want to encourage you right now, keep showing up. Keep showing up. Day in and day out. Keep showing up. Keep trusting God.That's where you really need to put your trust. Keep trusting God and keep living intentionally. That's what this whole series was about. Intentional living. And keep doing that one day at a time.And one more time, I want to encourage you to grab a copy of my book, Mastering Your Finances. It's a free copy. This will be the last time I mentioned on the show for a while, but you can get it financiallyconfidentchristian.com/master.Now tomorrow we're going to kick off a brand new series and it's, it's. Believe it or not, it's almost time for Back to School.I know we're a little bit early, but we're going to be talking about smart money for Back to School and beyond. I'm going to talk about equipping your family for a thriving school or physical year. Yes.Back to School is actually right around the corner and I wanted you to get ready.This next series is going to be packed with timely, faith filled guidance for back to school, spending routines that support peace, teaching kids about money, and most of all, and I love this part of this, preparing your household for the entire year ahead. So whether you're a parent, maybe you're a student, or maybe you're just entering a new season of your life, this series is for you.So stay with us, encourage other people. Maybe this is a good time to share the show with them. Say, hey, Ralph's getting ready to start a new series tomorrow and back to school.And I know we talk about the kids all the time. You might want to tune into this. You can send them to financiallyconfidentchristian.com and I'd really appreciate if you shared the show with them.So as we end today, let's all go out there and be financially confident Christians. You can do this. I truly believe in you. Believe in yourself and trust the one who walks with you every step of the way.God bless you and you have a great day today.