Financial planning leads to wealth

God’s part is to give the power, but the believer’s part is to harness the power and convert it to wealth through sound planning, diligence, value addition, savings and investments. Thus practical success principles and processes should be added to spiritual factors like faith and prayer if one is to become rich and wealthy.
Some Christian brethren seem to substitute prayer and faith for hard work and financial prudence. They need to learn that God is not going to rain money from heaven; money is here on earth and people in the secular world know how to create a flow of it towards their coffers without prayer and faith, but through practical principles and processes.
Yes, sometimes we may experience financial miracles and divine favour that boost our financial positions, but these, like windfalls from lotteries, will not make you wealthy by themselves. You need to be frugal, prudent and a sound planner as the opening scripture above shows.
The Lord Jesus was well versed in using the divine power to supply abundance of food and yet He also taught the principle of saving and not wasting. John 6:12 reads: “When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”
If God’s miraculous power is always available, then why did the Lord advise his disciples to gather the leftovers? The point is, we cannot live by miracles, but we live by adhering to the fixed order of the universe.
We only need God’s power to help us out of situations that are humanly impossible, but thereafter we engage the fixed principles and processes of the universe to supply for ourselves.
Jesus provided abundance of food by a miracle because there was no other way. However, they had to save for the following days. The principle here is “waste not, want not”. This principle is also alluded to in Genesis 41 where Joseph, inspired by God, told the king to store the fifth part of the harvest in the seven years plenty against the following seven years of famine. If Pharaoh had not heeded that economic advice, he and all Egyptians and the house of Jacob, were to perish in the famine.
Do not always blame the economy saying that it promotes a propensity to consume than to save. From the Old Testament up until now, the general economic trend is plenty today and famine tomorrow. So you need foresight in order to predict the future and position yourself accordingly.
The Bible says, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on and are punished.” Unwise people get the punishment of famine, but the wise save for the rainy day. The keynote scripture above specifically refers to counting the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus first before being part of his team.
Self-denial, putting God’s claims first, self-sacrifice, leaving all and cross-bearing constituted the cost of following Jesus. Jesus did not want chancers and triers. In financial matters we can say the tower you want to build is wealth. The cost includes drawing and following a financial budget, saving when it seems impossible, sacrificing immediate gratification for long-term financial freedom and simplification.
Simplification means deliberately creating a lifestyle in which you need less money to live on in order to increase savings and investments for the future. It involves lowering your standard of living, desisting from impulse buying, educating children in less expensive schools, staying in cheaper accommodation until such a time when you can enter a shop and fill a trolley with groceries without looking at prices.

– For advice on simplification please call 011877180 or e-mail: mairos78@yahoo.co.uk