Do you feel weighted down by financial stress?
You're not alone. Money worries touch all of us. But Jesus tells us we don't have to carry that burden. That's why we at Faithful have written Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional from Faithful. Each day, you'll find scripture, reflection, and prayer to guide you through your journey toward peace. Visit faithful.com slash sparrows and start finding freedom from financial anxiety today with Look at the Sparrows.
That's faith by dot com slash sparrows. One of the enemy's favorite tools for discouraging Christians is the question, what if? Unfortunately, those what if questions lead right down the road to fear.
Hi, I'm Rob West. The Bible reminds us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. So you don't have to let the what ifs defeat you. We'll talk about that today and then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance biblical wisdom for your financial journey. How many times have you worried about your finances, asking those scary what if questions like what if I lose my job?
What if I don't have enough money for retirement? What if something bad happens to me or my loved ones? The problem with this kind of thinking is that it focuses on events that haven't happened yet or may never happen. We can't control the future, but we certainly like to worry about it, don't we? God knows this about us, which is why Jesus reminded his disciples in Matthew six.
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? You and I can't control the future, but we can put our what if worries in the hands of the one who does. It doesn't matter how mixed up or complicated the circumstances are, God isn't overwhelmed by them.
Let's look at this another way. When circumstances seem impossible, we have a choice. Give in to the what if fear or trust God's provision and help.
We can change our what if mindset to an even if trust in God. I'm sure you remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from Sunday School or VBS. The book of Daniel tells the story of these three young Israelites, captives in Babylon, who demonstrated unwavering faith in the face of persecution.
They refused to worship the king's idol despite the threat of death by fire as the three men were being led to the fiery furnace. This is what they said to King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3, 17 and 18. If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king.
But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up. The three young men acknowledged God's power to save and the importance of doing the right thing no matter what. They accepted God's sovereignty, even if it meant not being delivered from hardship. Their trust in God wasn't conditional on the outcome, but rooted in God's character. In moments of financial anxiety, you can embrace that same trust. In Christ, you can replace your what if mentality with an even if trust in God. You can believe that the Lord will give you what you need when you need it, even if it doesn't look exactly the way you planned.
So how does even if change those worries we mentioned a few moments ago? What if I lose my job becomes even if I lose my job, I will trust the Lord. What if I can't afford retirement becomes even if I can't afford retirement, I will trust the Lord. What if something bad happens to me or my loved one becomes even if something bad happens, I will trust the Lord. You see, accepting that God's plans don't always match ours can be challenging. The Bible acknowledges that life will have its worries and doubts. However, faith means trusting God's sovereignty, even if we struggle, knowing he works out all things for our ultimate good. My challenge to you today is to make a list of things you're worried about.
Write them out as what if questions and then cross out what if and replace it with even if. Submit those worries to the Lord and he will begin to fill your heart with the spirit of power, love and self-control that his word promises. God's word is full of promises for believers who put their complete trust in the Lord. Let me leave you with another one of my favorites from Isaiah 41 10. Fear not for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
If you or someone you know struggles with financial anxiety and the what ifs that lead to fear. Visit us at faithfi.com and pick up a copy of our new 21 day devotional, Look at the Sparrows. This resource will reassure and strengthen you with biblical truth and daily spiritual encouragement. Again, it's called Look at the Sparrows, a 21 day devotional on financial fear and anxiety. You'll find it at faithfi.com slash sparrows.
That's faithfi.com slash sparrows. Back with your questions after this. Stick around. What's most important to you when it comes to choosing your financial advisor? Someone who's aligned with your biblical values? How about someone who will take the time to explain your options? Certified Kingdom Advisors are professionals who meet high standards in competence and integrity and have been trained to offer biblical financial advice.
To find a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area, visit faithfi.com and click Find a CKA. Are you overwhelmed by financial fear and anxiety? You're not alone. At Faithfi, we hear it every day. People weighed down by worries related to wealth and money. But financial anxiety isn't about the size of your bank account.
It's about the condition of your heart. That's why we've created Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional that'll help you find peace through Jesus's teachings. Replace your financial anxiety with peace today.
Visit faithfi.com slash sparrows and start your journey today. Hey, I'm thankful you're joining us today for Faith in Finance. We're going to look forward to taking your calls throughout the broadcast here today.
So we've got room for you. A few lines open at the moment. 800-525-7000. You can call right now. All right, let's head to the phones. Indianapolis.
What a beautiful city. Grant, go right ahead. Hi, Rob. How are you today? Doing great. Thanks for your call. That's awesome.
I have a quick question. I'm a teacher. I'm in my 20s, and I've been able to amass a little bit of savings, but my salary is not going up with the rate of inflation, and I'm starting to have to dig into my savings. I tithe 10% with every check. I'm not going to be able to continue to do that without pulling from my savings, and that really stresses me out. But if I pray about this and if I don't tithe, I kind of feel guilty about it. So I just, I don't know, I guess I was kind of looking for some wisdom on this.
Yeah. Well, I appreciate your desire, Grant, to give us unto the Lord and to be faithful in this area of systematic giving. And I think it's an important part of our journey as a believer is trusting in the Lord to use wisely what he has given us, not only to enjoy and not only to provide, but to give. And it's one of the ways we participate in God's activity. He doesn't need our money.
He owns it all. He wants our hearts, but he allows us to be involved in what he's doing, and it's a privilege. In terms of thinking about your giving in light of the New Testament, I mean, clearly we see generosity, a hallmark of the Old and New Testament, but I think what stands out to me in the New Testament is giving systematically and proportionately, give as it has been given you, also giving sacrificially. We see the widow giving out of her poverty, and Jesus celebrated that.
It wasn't the amount that she was giving out of a sacrifice. We should give, I think, as a worship to the Lord. We should also give freely, or not under compulsion, we read in God's Word. And I think that speaks to that last point that you made, which is you feel somewhat guilty. And I think we can be clear, just based on the reading of Scripture, that we shouldn't do it out of guilt, that we should do it as an overflow of our gratitude to God, realizing that we have an abundance even before the first dollar because of what he's done on our behalf through the shed blood of his Son. And that reconciled us to him, and that we're rich because of his poverty when he sacrificed himself. Now, beyond that, though, there is the real dollars and cents of this, that you have to make work, and I get that. I think the starting point is this idea of worship and giving freely and cheerfully, but in terms of the mechanics of that, you know, I think that's between you and the Lord. God knows your heart, he knows the resources you have, and you know, you are a teacher, I love that. And I realize the reality is right now that inflation has caused the prices of, you know, things we depend on every day, like food and utilities, to go up much faster than incomes have.
They're not keeping pace. And so that creates a challenge. So what that looks like for you, I think, again, that's something you pray about. If God were to prompt you to come out of savings for some of that, I don't think that's a bad thing. I also don't think it's a bad thing if you decided for a season, I'm going to continue giving systematically, but I'm going to dial it back. And I'm going to trust the Lord that he's going to continue to provide, and I'm going to look vigilantly and diligently for areas to cut back other than my giving, you know, even to the point about the widow and her might. Maybe you look for other areas where for a season you, you know, sacrifice a subscription or, you know, cable television or as much eating out, you know, and, and look for ways where you can do more giving through sacrifice. But at the end of the day, I don't think, you know, God is not an accountant.
It's not about a legalistic checking of a box. It really is about your heart posture. And there may be a season where you need to dial that back. I guess the last thing I would say is, I would continue doing something. Let's continue to exercise that muscle of systematic giving, whether it's six, nine or 14%. I think that's ultimately your call.
Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I love what you said in there. I really appreciate that, Rob. Thank you. Absolutely, Grant. Lord bless you, buddy. Thanks for calling.
Lakeland, Florida is where we're going next. Go ahead, Phil. Yes, sir. I have a fairly large portfolio. And I'm just wondering, you know, when the stock market, what is your opinion on moving everything over to cash if the stock market starts really going taking a dip? I don't like it, Phil.
And I'll tell you why. Number one is when we do that, we're normally doing that out of fear rather than sound financial planning. So those are emotional decisions typically done by people who are managing their own money, not a an advisor who's looking at a discipline kind of rules based philosophy. I think the other challenge is there's inflation risk. So cash, while stable, doesn't grow and doesn't protect against inflation.
And so holding large amounts of cash for an extended period of time can erode your purchasing power. And then finally, and this is the biggest one is you're typically going to miss out on the market rebound. You know, historically, the stock market tends to recover after downturns, often rebounding while it's least expected. You know, usually, the market recovers before the data that says it should recover, you know, once we kind of get to the, you know, bottom of, you know, there's no more sellers left and the buyers with all this cash on the side come rushing in, often quicker than most people would expect. And so typically, you miss the opportunity to benefit from the recovery.
And the clearest example of this and this isn't isolated, I could give you several of them. But the clearest was during the 2020 COVID pandemic. You know, when the pandemic hit in early 2020, the stock market experienced one of the fastest declines in history. I mean, the S&P 500 dropped over 30% in just a few weeks, and many investors fled to cash out of fear. But by August of 2020, the market had fully recovered and by the end of the year, it reached record highs. Well, guess how many investors are listening to my voice right now that missed all of that, because they got out and that was you could say, well, that was different.
No, it really wasn't. I mean, we saw a similar kind of thing over a longer period of time with the 08 and 09 global financial crisis. So long answer to a short question. But as you can tell, I'm, I'm pretty determined that that would not be my course of action.
If we saw a big market downturn. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
All right. God bless you, Phil. Thanks for calling today. Let's go to winter garden. Hi, Lillian. Go ahead. Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call.
I have a question. Recently, I heard you say that you can freeze your credit because I received an email that said my social security's on the dark web due to the data breach from the national public data. And I'm trying to figure out how can I do this quickly and as efficiently so that I don't know, should I email them, call them? And if I call them, do I have to call each?
Yeah, credit company, you do have to do this individually. Let me just say, there was millions of people affected by that. And if it's not national data, it's something else. I mean, I was notified the other day from my cell phone provider that they had a data breach. I mean, everybody's having a data breach these days. It's just the reality. And if, you know, I'm convinced everybody has some information about them on the dark web. So, you know, you're not alone. But taking these steps is important. And so I'm not minimizing it. I think you should freeze your credit, we should all freeze our credit.
The best way to do it is on the web. Are you comfortable with that? Oh, yes, yes. Okay. Yes.
Okay, so get a pen handy. I'm going to give you the three names of the three credit bureaus. And all of them if you put a.com after their name, you'll go to their website and you can follow the instructions to put the freeze in place and it's free. Equifax, E-Q-U-I-F-A-X, TransUnion, and Experian, E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.
I'll say them again. Equifax, TransUnion, Experian, put a.com after all three of their names. You've got to go to each of them separately.
But you can freeze your credit there. I think that'd be a great next step for you. Lillian, thanks for your call today.
Hey, we're going to take a quick break and then be back with much more. Stick around. As a faithful listener of the Faith and Finance Program, you know that there is life-changing financial wisdom in God's Word to meet all your needs. More than anything, Faithful is here to help you and millions of others see God as your ultimate treasure. As a nonprofit, we're grateful for our partners that help expand our outreach every month with their generosity. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry?
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Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services, LLC. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's go to Saul in Mississippi. Go ahead.
Yes, hi. I am just trying to figure out, like, I'm about $26,000 in credit card debt now. My husband walked out on us and for a while he was paying the bills, but then he stopped. We now have a court order that, you know, makes it better. But in that meantime, we did rack up some debt. I'm almost to the limit on the card and my credit score used to be, like, 780, but now it's quite a bit lower. And we need, well, we're going to need, I mean, like, we're doing fine without any major expenses, but now with having to pay extra lawyer fees and, you know, we're looking at getting the roof on the house replaced in the next year or so.
I'm wondering what the best option is for, you know, do we take a home equity line on our house or what do we do? Yeah, boy, Saul, I'm so sorry. I know this is a lot and it's weighing on you and there's just so many things going on here. And certainly the financial piece of this is adding additional pressure and stress. And so we need to ask the Lord to intervene here.
Obviously, we can pray toward a restoration of the marriage that would be preeminent. But regardless of how this plays out, we trust him as your provider and sustainer. And we need to just, you know, take one step at a time here. And you need people around you who can give you wise counsel and encouragement. And we'd love to help to provide that as you navigate this.
Here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to give you the gift of a Christian financial counselor, a certified Christian financial counselor who could walk alongside you over several sessions, just to try to get everything documented in terms of where do you stand? What is the income you have? What are the expenses you have?
What debts do you have? Kind of where are we at in, you know, the process of figuring out who's going to be responsible for what, assuming you do end up getting divorced. And just, you know, taking this one month at a time, as you navigate this will cover the cost of that if you'd be willing to take advantage of it.
And this would be a trained godly financial counselor who would work with you over the phone over a series of meetings, just to try to get everything in place and help you put a plan together. Because often when we're going through something as traumatic as this is, everything just becomes cloudy. It's hard to make a decision. You know, it's hard to see the path forward. And so having somebody who's trained in this area, who, you know, shares your values and can encourage you spiritually and pray for you, but also help you make the right financial moves, you know, I think would be really helpful. Is that something you'd take advantage of if we provided it?
Oh, definitely. Okay, let's do that. So I'm going to have you hold the line. Sandy's going to get your information. And we're going to get one of our Certified Christian Financial Counselors in touch with you, just to kind of help you put a plan together on where you go from here. And hopefully that'll give you some clarity and some clarity and some encouragement. And then this will all, you know, play out over time and become clear as to how this proceeds. But just be sure to call us after you get on the other side of this. And we want to hear God's testimony of the Lord's faithfulness to you. And we know it's certainly going to be challenging, but He's going to walk every step with you. He said He'll never leave us or forsake us. And we can trust in that. And this is a difficult season, and we'll have those in this in this world. But the Lord is right there with us. And so you can be confident in that today. And we will hope we can play a small part in just being an encouragement to you and helping you get some wise counsel. So stay right there. We'll get your information and get somebody in touch with you and won't cost you a penny. We'll take care of everything. God bless you. Thanks for calling today. Let's finish up today in Portland, Tennessee. Hi, Carlos, how can I help? Yes, sir.
So thank you so much for taking my call. My question is, I just moved here from California. I just started a new job here literally about a week ago. There's a home for sale that I just happened to come across this morning. It's right up the street from where I'm renting. It's only $154,000. I really don't have a whole lot to put down for a down payment. And looking at it based off of what it says on Zillow and I know it can be misleading as far as like monthly payments and so but it would be about what I'm paying for rent. This new job is very promising.
I mean, it's very stable. It seems like Lord willing that will be the case but I just wanted to know being that I don't have a whole lot to put down as a down payment. Is it a smart move to get into a house right now even if it is only $154,000 or what?
What would you say would be my best? Yeah, because it seems like it checks off all of the boxes as far as what my family I have a wife and a daughter and as far as what our needs are, it checks all the boxes off and maybe even potentially to be a rental home down the road when we get something a little bigger, but for a start on it, it's good. So yeah, no, I hear you in that. And you know, I mean, I think the rules of thumb we use and that's all they are. I mean, they're starting point is we want 20% down.
Clearly, you don't have that yet. And we want to make sure that payment principal interest taxes and insurance is no more than 25% of your take home pay. Now that's challenging in Nashville, because this is one of those markets.
I mean, the entire country's hot right now, Nashville, and, you know, a few places in Florida, and, you know, a few places like Austin, Texas and California, I mean, they're really hot. And so you're in one of those markets that you know, the housing prices are just up. And so I don't want you to rush that, especially in light of these interest rates, that is just gonna really going to make this challenging. And so my preference would be that you all wait, let the interest rates come down and you save but let me ask, I mean, are you able to put anything aside every month after the bills are paid?
Oh, yes, absolutely. We're we don't we have very minimum we don't have any debt. I mean, I'm the only one that works, but I have a very good job, or I just got a very good job. So we definitely are able we have been in the habit of saving for a while. So what would you say the your average monthly surplus is? So putting away, we're probably looking at around and it's because I haven't made a whole lot of my past careers that I've had, but I were able to put around like 1500 away monthly.
So okay, so okay, great. Well, I mean, you know, with $154,000 home, I mean, we're looking ideally for you to have 30 grand. And you know, what do you have today that you could put toward a down payment?
I only have about probably $3,000. And would that deplete your entire emergency fund? No, sir, it wouldn't.
It wouldn't. I have we have two accounts. I had more I had about 7000 earlier this month, but I had to use a bunch to move out here. So okay. Well, I mean, here's the thing. I mean, in 18 months, you'd have your 20% at 1500 a month. So I think I would prefer especially if you don't have a fully funded emergency fund, you're new to town, you know, you're still trying to get your feet wet there in Nashville, you might even not even sure on what part of town you want to settle in.
So I'd probably as much as you want to be a homeowner, my preference would be you save, keep your expenses low, save that 1500 a month and somewhere between 12 and 18 months from now, get it at a lower interest rate with a full 20% bound payment. That's my best advice. God bless you, Carlos. Well, folks, that's gonna do it for us. We covered a lot of ground today really appreciate you being along with us. Hey, if we can do anything to serve you don't hesitate to reach out at faithfi.com. You can download the app and while you're there, if you'd like to support our work, we'd certainly be grateful as a listener supported ministry, just click Give. Thank you to Dan, Amy, Chris, Peter and Taylor. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.
