This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Praxis Mutual Funds. They are a leading faith-based family of mutual funds helping people integrate their finances with their values since 1994. With Praxis, your investments can make a difference for you and the world around you. Learn more at Praxismutualfunds.com. Christians are supposed to be different from the world, and one place that difference should be easy to spot is stewardship.
Hi, I'm Rob West. In a culture that glorifies materialism, true stewardship should stand out. Practicing it fully requires a working knowledge of the principles behind stewardship. We'll talk about that first today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. So the first principle we must understand about stewardship is ownership. God owns everything. He created everything, so that just stands to reason. And Scripture is very clear about this. Psalm 24 one and two reads, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. And in Deuteronomy 10 14, Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that's in it.
And finally, Psalm 50 verse 10, For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. Well, now that we've established God's ownership, let's look at this from another angle. If God owns everything, that means we own nothing. That's a difficult concept to grasp because we possess a lot of stuff, a house, a car, a bank account. We hold those things, but we don't own them. God does.
We own nothing from the change in our pocket to the clothes on our back. God owns it all. And we're to use those resources wisely and in obedience to the Lord. You see, if we become arrogant about who's done what, it's good to remember that even the skills and abilities we have to acquire wealth belong to God. They're only on loan, if you will, and we're to use them to glorify him first and foremost, not to enrich ourselves.
Deuteronomy 8, 17 and 18 makes this clear. It reads, beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. So God owns everything. We own nothing. That's the first principle of stewardship.
The second principle is responsibility. You see, as stewards, we have no rights over what we temporarily possess by the Lord's provision. But we do have responsibility to use those resources wisely for his purposes. There's nothing wrong with enjoying God's provision, but we must seek the balance between that and using his resources for his purposes. This is defined in 1 Timothy 6, 17, which says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. One day each of us will stand before the Lord to give an account of how we used his resources, just like the servants in the parable of the talents.
The difference is we'll be accountable for everything, not just money, but our time and abilities too. Those are all resources God has given us, so we must use them wisely. How do we know where to draw the line? How to enjoy God's provision without clinging to it and claiming it for our own? I think that's something each of us must determine in quiet prayer with the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8, 26 reads, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us, with groanings too deep for words. Trust him to tell you if you're enjoying or squandering what the Lord has given you. Now the third principle of stewardship is reward. I think we have reason enough to be good stewards because of what God's already given us, the priceless gift of his Son for our salvation, but he promises even more blessings when we're faithful stewards. Colossians 3 reads, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. And of course, Jesus himself tells us in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.
I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master. How we manage God's provision will determine whether we hear those words someday. We all want to be declared good and faithful stewards. Alright, your calls are next.
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Create your free faith by account by going to faithfi.com and click sign up to begin receiving weekly wisdom in your inbox. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Give us a call.
Let's begin today in Washington State. Hi, Renee. Thanks for calling.
Go ahead. Yes, I'm just calling about my daughter and her husband. They're recently married, I guess a couple years now, but they both have ruined their credit by misusing credit cards. And her husband actually had a school loan that he didn't finish paying off and then they've had medical bills. But the credit cards, I think, are the biggest thing that now it's ruined their rental ability to have good credit to get a rental as well as purchase a home.
What would you recommend for them? Yeah, well, I certainly understand that and these can be tough lessons to learn, although as long as they learn from them, that's the key, Renee, because as they're just getting started out, if these first few missteps can be a building opportunity for them to cultivate the right disciplines so they never get into this situation again, that will be really helpful, even if it means it's going to delay a purchase like a new home. Perhaps they're going to have to rent longer than they would like to. And I realized they'd love to own their own home, but especially in light of where interest rates are at right now, them taking some time to really work on getting those credit cards paid off and getting an emergency fund in place and then saving for that down payment is going to not only shore them up financially and help to improve her credit, but also put her in a position where hopefully they can take advantage of lower interest rates, which we would expect next year as rate increases.
Next year as rates start back down. So where would they go from here? Well, the first step is always to develop a spending plan, they really need to have a good handle on what is coming in and what is going out. And that's not only those things they get a bill for, but they also need to have a budget to spending plan that includes those discretionary expenses, so that they can really go to work on limiting their lifestyle, cutting out unnecessary spending to free up margin, which is really the key to accomplish.
their goals. So with every bit of margin, that is anything left over, after the bills are paid, I would put that first toward an emergency fund of at least $1,500 just so they have a cushion there. So when the unexpected comes, and it will they have something to fall back on, then they want to keep all the bills paid, including the minimum payments on the credit cards. But at that point, they'll want to attack those cards with that available margin to get that paid off. to get that paid off a little quicker. And then being an on time payer every month with those balances coming down, especially when those balances get below 30% of the available credit, which is the credit utilization score, the combination of the on time payments, plus the the credit utilization coming down is going to improve her credit. What is the primary issue with the credit? Is it late payments? Or was it just the amount that they owe?
Well, I think they sound like there was a little of both. Okay. All right. Yeah. I think what they did, and to be honest, I actually did this myself, you know, you get you can get credit cards that are interest free for 12 months, 18 months. So you just roll everything over to that credit card. Well, you keep rolling over rolling over year after year, pretty soon.
The credit card companies won't accept you. Yeah, yeah. And so then I did that. And so I but I thankfully, you know, I'm I've gotten myself out of that and paid everything off. But, you know, I took a little loan out and paid it that way. But what if they were to consolidate their credit cards? Is there, you know, these consolidation companies that help you to get your interest rates down? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that for the reason that you mentioned is a lot of what I see most often is folks will get a consolidation loan pay off the debt, it takes the pressure off even if the interest rate comes down a lot of times the payback period is longer so you end up paying just as much or more in interest. The bigger issue, though, is you don't have to do the hard work to get out of debt.
So you don't cultivate the right disciplines. And because those cards are still open, I get a call six months later that say, guess what, Rob, the credit card debts back, and now we have the consolidation loan on top of it. So what I would do is leave it right there, if they have more than $4,000 in credit card debt, and you very easily can, especially if you get into that balance transfer trap, and that's really what it is.
On top of the fact that you still have the cards open, you get hit with a 3% fee, and you're right, eventually, they'll, they'll stop that game once they see what you're doing. My preference, Renee, would be that they use a credit counseling program. This is often called debt management. You have to go through a not for profit credit counseling agency. We recommend Christian credit counselors here at FaithFi.
They've worked with hundreds and hundreds of our listeners. What will happen is those debts will stay right with the original creditor that they're with now, the accounts will be closed, the interest rates will be dropped to whatever that particular credit card company's debt management rate is, which will be lower than the prevailing rate, and the combination of one level monthly payment through Christian credit counselors to each of her cards, plus the lower payments will allow her to pay that off on average 80% faster. So if they were to go back and build that spending plan, create some margin, get that emergency fund of 1500, and then get all these cards enrolled in credit counseling, that will help to get her on track to get out of debt once and for all, hopefully establish the right disciplines that makes this all sustainable. So we don't repeat this in the future. And by doing all these things, her credit will just naturally repair itself.
There's really not anything you can do to short circuit that process. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah.
Yeah, thank you so much for that. So they do they really need to get the emergency fund before they go to the credit counseling process? They don't. My only concern is that if they don't start putting something aside and hopefully and Christian credit counselors will work with them on this because the first step they do is they'll help them create a budget. And they're going to create a budget that not only covers the monthly payment to the credit card companies, but has a little bit of margin. And even if it's 25 or $50 a month going into a savings account, they need something going into a savings account so they can break the cycle of charging against the credit cards when something comes out of left field.
And it always does. So that's where that 1500 is not a magic number. I just want them to start to develop the discipline of putting something in savings. And I want them to start to build a little bit of a reserve fund that they can go to first.
So they don't ever have to charge on the credit cards again for a non budgeted purchase. Does that make sense? Yeah, yes, that does.
Yeah. Okay, very good. So the next step is to contact our friends at Christian credit counselors.org. That's Christian credit counselors.org. And they will get them set up, get the budget going, help them understand what those new interest rates are. And all of that working together will get this going in the right direction. So hopefully that's helpful to you, Renee, we appreciate your call. And you know what, by the way, stay on the line, I'd like to send you a book that will be our gift to you. It's called Money and Marriage God's Way. And I think for a new young married couple, if they'd be willing to read that together while they're doing these other things, that could really help to set them up for the future.
So they don't ever have to get in this situation again. Thanks for calling today. 800-525-7000.
We're headed to a break here. As we do, let me remind you, if you'd consider a gift to the ministry of any amount, and we mean that beyond the giving to your local church, a gift to Faithfi would go a long way to helping us continue to offer the ministry resources we make available every day to stewards literally around the globe. You can make a gift quickly and easily at faithfi.com. Just click Give.
That's faithfi.com. Just click Give. And thanks in advance. Back with your questions just around the corner. Stick around. We'll be right back. . . . Welcome back.
This is Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls today. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
