How Can I Finally Live in True Financial Peace?

Speaker A00:00:00

You've walked this journey with me. It's been 30 days in this series of breaking chains.And the whole time we've confronted the main struggles that so many people deal with and we've learned to live differently. And now for so many of you, and I'm starting to get the emails, you've arrived at the question you've been waiting for.How do I finally live in true financial peace? And so many people have asked me, they've reached out to me. They said, ralph, is this piece of finish line, is it some checkbox?I can finally get to the point where, say, ralph, I'm a financially confident Christian. Check the box. Or is it something deeper? Is it a lifelong walk with God? But here's the truth I want you to understand.You got to really embrace this today. Peace isn't a destination. So many people think you're going to find peace. And check the box, Ralph, I've arrived. But that's not what it is.Peace is really a journey of faith. And it's a journey that you take one step at a time.And when you anchor that in God's faithfulness, and that's exactly what I'm gonna talk about on today's show, we can celebrate what God has done for us and we can embrace that path forward to lasting peace. So that's what I want you to join me for. That's exactly what I'm gonna cover 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. Hello there. Welcome back to Financially Conf Confident Christian. I'm Ralph. I am so glad that you chose to honor me with your time today.It just makes me feel great that you come and just join me for a few minutes every day. And on this show, my goal every single day is to help you answer this question, how can I become a financially confident Christian?And today we're ending the 30 day series on breaking financial chains. And I hope you've joined me along this path. And if you haven't joined me, you can go back and listen to all these.You can find all of these@financiallyconfidentchristian.com and if you've been along with me on the journey, you know, we tackled shame, we've tackled the fears of debt, we've tackled the fears of not being able to give enough. We talked about saving, we discussed budgeting, we talked about stewardship.And today I just want to really tie it all together and really answer that big audacious question, how do I truly live in financial peace? Ralph? Because if you're like most of us, you've made some progress along the way.Maybe you're living right now, you've got less stress, you've got more confidence in your financial decisions. And for so many of us, we just want to be done with this. We're like, hey, it's done. I can put it to rest. I'll give you an example of that.Right now, I'm on a diet. I started my weight loss journey. I weighed 430 pounds. Well, just the other day, I weighed in at 268. And I said to myself, great, I'm almost there.But what I'm starting to realize, and you're going to realize this in your journey of sanctification, in your journey of life, in your journey of financial faith. The work's just starting. You're going to have setbacks and you're going to feel like, oh, my God, Ralph, things are going to be undone completely.And so many people struggle with that. If you see pieces, this finish line, once you get it, you run across the finish line, you break the piece of ribbon there and you've accomplished it.But the problem is when you live in that reality, that false reality, I'll say that complacency after that wins in the end. And so many people suffer discouragement, because guess what? In life, financially especially, you're going to have setbacks.And I found this from Fidelity. Fidelity did a survey and I thought this was an interesting statistic. Kind of a sad statistic, but interesting.It says this, 73% of Americans who complete a financial goal, those things like paying off a debt, say they slip back into old habits and listen to this part within two years.And see, that's because so many people think that peace is this destination, it's a finish line, and they feel like they're going to have this level of perfection. But I'm going to spoil something for you right now. It's not about perfection.If you listen to my show, you know, I say this all the time, it's not about perfection. It's truly about perseverance. Because here's the thing, true stewardship.If you really want to live in a stewardship filled life, whatever that looks like for you, it's a lifelong discipleship. And money management is one of the main core components of that. And that's the spiritual formation. And things are going to happen in your life.Well, let's get right into the word of God today. I found this verse today in the book of Philippians, chapter 1 6.And I think this is a great way to think about this being a journey, this being a continual thing that we're all sorting after. Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.And I just think we can all be reassured by that verse. God is faithful to what he started in us, and I hope that encourages you today.There are days when I get up and I head down to the gym and I think, man, this is another day. I would love to just be done with this. Maybe you're listening. You're watching right now. You're like, ralph, I'm right there with you.This financial struggle, man. I just want to be done with this. Where's the finish line? But don't lose heart, because what is God reminding us of?He's going to carry it on till the day that he returns. Here's another great verse from the Bible. This is from chapter 4, verse 18 of the book of Proverbs. And you can really anchor your soul in this one.It says this again, Proverbs 4, 18. The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. What is that really saying to us?And I think we can learn from this. Peace grows over time. It's not going to happen overnight. Here's a truth bomb.A lot of people come to me, I do some financial counseling with them and I'll say, ralph, I got into debt. Give me a path to get out of this, and they'll come back a week later, like, ralph, I'm still in debt. I'm like, guess what?You didn't get into debt overnight. You're not going to get out of it overnight either. But that peace, those day in and day out decisions, will grow that confidence over time.It's not going to happen overnight. Well, let's look at the book of James, chapter 1, verse 2 to 4 again, James 1, 2, 4.It says, consider it pure joy because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let me just tell you right now, there's no finish line, but there is perseverance. You're going to have setbacks. If you're listening to my voice.You're watching me right now. I'm going to encourage you right now. You are going to have setbacks, but it's how you respond to those. It's how you grow through those.It's that perseverance I dare use a big word here. It's that financial maturity. Now, I'm going to quote Dave Ramsey. I'm not on Dave Ramsey's team all the time, but this one I thought was very good.And he said this. He said, financial peace isn't the absence of debt. He goes on to say this. He says it's the presence of contentment.And I think Dave nails it right here. Financial peace isn't the absence of debt, but what is it? It's the presence of contentment. So now I'm going to ask you that question.I started with Ralph. How do I truly live in peace?I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to take a lifelong commitment to growth and a lifelong commitment to financial stewardship. And let me just tell you right now, it's all about changing your mindset. There's no finish line, there's no checkboxes.But it's truly that walk with God every single day of your life to stay in that communion and to stay in that stewardship with Him. And I love what the Reverend Charles Stanley says. True peace comes not from the absence of problems, but from the presence of God.And I just think Charles nails it here. You want to get to true peace. You're never going to live a life with no problems. But if God is there with you, you have the Lord's presence with you.You will live in peace. So here's your action step for today. I want to give you an action step to help you make progress in your journey.And I just want you to take time right now and write down one or two chains that God has broken in the last 30 days. See, it's so easy not to see your progress. I go back to my diet as an example on a day in and day out basis. I don't see myself shrinking.I don't see myself getting healthier. But then I get on that scale maybe once a week, I'd say, wow, dropped a couple more pounds. It didn't happen overnight.But if you don't go back and revisit those things, go find those chains that were broken. Do you have a debt management plan now? Do you have a budget that you're living in? Do you give faithfully? Do you give cheerfully?Whatever that looks like for you, Write down one or two of those chains that God has broken and just thank him for it. And once you do that, revisit those principles query that we talked about. You can go re listen to or re watch that series again and again.Commit to Weekly, daily, monthly, annually. Growth. Keep learning. Read books, go take workshops, watch more podcasts, listen to more podcasts, whatever that looks like for you. Read more books.I'll tell you how you can get a copy of my book for free here in just a couple minutes. And one more thing I'm going to encourage you to do is establish a financial Sabbath. You may not have heard me talk about this.I've talked about it a couple times on this show. But this is so very important.Whether it be monthly or quarterly, review that budget, review those goals, review that giving plan, review those savings plan and pray about it. Truly pray about it. And thank God for the provision he's giving you. And just remember this. You got to embrace grace. Perfection is not the goal.And you are going to stumble. You are going to have setbacks. But it's how you get back up from those setbacks that makes a difference. You learn, you restart and trust God's grace.Because when you do this, and when you look at it like a lifelong journey, it transforms money from a task into discipleship. So many people think they're going to check a couple boxes and their financial problems are going to be resolved. It doesn't work like that.It's a lifelong decision to stay in communion and discipleship. And when you do that, when you embrace that journey, it builds resilience and it anchors your peace in the only true anchor in God's faithfulness.How about we pray together now?Father God, thank you for beginning a good work in us and thank you for your promise to carry it through to completion, whatever that looks like on your timeline or not ours. And we confess that we often want quick fixes, Lord, but you call us to be faithful and you call us to faithful endurance.Lord, help us to embrace this stewardship as a lifelong journey. Give us the wisdom for each season of our lives, strength to persevere through setbacks where we know they're going to happen.But most of all, Lord, give us grace to walk with confidence in you. And may our finances truly testify to your goodness. And may our lives bring glory to your name. And we ask this in confidence in the name of Jesus.Amen. Well, I just want to say congratulations.If you've been with me the last 30 days and you've completed the break in the Financial Chain series, and the truth is you've taken steps towards transformation and you are farther along than you think and, and you're starting to find that peace. And remember, this is only the beginning of your lifelong walk. Larry Burkett said this he said every spending decision is a spiritual decision.So I want to encourage you right now. If this 30 day journey has blessed you, I want to encourage you. Don't keep it to yourself. I want to encourage you right now. Share it with a friend.Share with a family member. Share with somebody who needs that financial reassurance. Who's somebody that needs that financial freedom.Because let me tell you right now, this might be this very spark that changes their life. Just send them to our website.They can pick up the whole series at financiallyconfidentchristian.com and here's something else I want to give you talked about this a few minutes ago. I just finished my third book and it's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. I've laid it all out in black and white print.I'm going to give you a free copy that you can download that book right at my website.Just go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming it'll be in the show notes as well but it's financially confidentchristian.com becoming go get a copy of book, send it to your friends. The more people the better because this may be the very spark that changes their life.Now let's all go out there today and live as financially confident Christians. Let's live free, let's live faithful and let's live focused on God. Because listen, I know you can do this.I believe in you and more importantly than that, God believes in you. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and make sure you join me tomorrow as we launch another new series that will be fantastic. God bless you today.Have a great day.