Three Prayers from a Heart of Stewardship with Rachel McDonough

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Just click Sign Up. Now, let's dive into the podcast. on how we're stewarding the resources God has entrusted to us. Today, Rachel McDonough joins us to share three key scriptures and prayers to help guide us in faithful stewardship. And then onto your questions at 800-525-7000.

This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, it's always a treat to have my friend Rachel McDonough back on the program. She's a certified financial planner and a certified kingdom advisor. And she has incredible insights about stewardship to share today. Rachel, great to have you back with us. Thank you, Rob. Happy to be here. Rachel, you have a great article on the Wealth Squared website titled Three Prayers from a Heart of Stewardship.

And we'll, of course, put a link to it in today's show notes. But I want to highlight these three stewardship stories that you've found from Scripture. Yeah, I found three stories that I think give us a clear example of how sometimes what appears to be wasteful might actually in fact be wise. And what appears to be wise may in some cases be wasteful if we're looking at financial principles only. And we do gravitate towards that straightforward principles-based approach where we can follow simple rules of thumb to save up for the future, protect against losses and sort of win the stewardship game. But I think God has something deeper in mind for us in our stewardship journey. And he's really after our hearts. Oh, I couldn't agree more. And you're so right. I mean, we just gravitate toward those principles. And those are good.

There's nothing wrong with them. But what's beneath the surface? And I feel like we don't talk about that enough.

And so we're going to dive into that today. But that's really at the heart of this, isn't it? It is.

It is. And of course, the work that you all do here at Faith and Finance, and all of the amazing Christian teaching on stewardship, we don't want to dismantle those principles. But 1 Samuel 16, 7 reminds us that man looks at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart.

So I think when it comes to stewardship, another way we might say that is, man likes to crunch the numbers, but the Lord looks at the heart and weighs the heart of his steward. Oh, that is so good. Well, we promised three passages and three prayers. So I'd love to dive into that first one.

Yeah, okay. Well, the woman who anointed Jesus, her story is found in all four Gospels. The setting is that Jesus is at a dinner party. And in walks this sinful woman. She breaks her bottle of fine perfume, which is probably her entire life savings, and she pours it all over Jesus.

She is absolutely despised, scorned, accused of being wasteful, the worst possible waste, like her entire life savings gone. The disciples point out that the perfume should have been sold and the money given to care for the poor. But Jesus sees it a different way.

He said, she, maybe unknowingly, we would say probably unknowingly, but she had anointed him to prepare for his burial. So our principle is kind of this tithes and offerings approach to generosity and worship. But the lesson here is that when we live lives of radical sold out worship, where Jesus is everything to us, we position ourselves to be in the right place at the right time to accomplish God's purpose and live in the Kairos moment.

That's a Greek term meaning the opportune time. Oh, that is so good and so spot on. So Rachel, with this lesson in mind, then how should we pray?

All right. Well, one of the things we do sometimes is talk about praying and not actually pray. So let's actually pray. God, give us the eyes to see that the real treasure is you and not wealth, that you yourself are the prize. God, show us the opportunities that we have to pour out extravagant worship at the feet of Jesus.

Give us the courage to go all in and hold nothing back, that pursuing you wholeheartedly is plan A, and we have no plan B. This life, Father, is short, and we want to care for the poor, but we don't want to settle for generic, mundane generosity that requires little of us, tithing our 10% and setting up our automatic monthly donations that we set and forget. Instead, Father, give us resolve to radically worship and pursue Jesus, that you might find us available for your purposes in the Kairos moment, that we can live in sync with the rhythms of heaven. Amen. Amen. Three passages, three prayers from a heart of stewardship. Rachel McDonough here today.

Two more just after this break. Don't go anywhere. We're just getting started on faith and finance.

We'll be right back. will deepen your understanding of biblical stewardship. Start your journey today by creating your Faithfi account at faithfi.com.

Just click, sign up. Faith and finance is grateful for support from Soundmind Investing. If you have money in an investment account, you know sometimes the stock market can seem like a roller coaster, but it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind as a do it yourself investor, no matter what's happening in the market. A short video webinar about that is available at soundmindinvesting.org. Financial wisdom for living well, soundmindinvesting.org. We're talking the heart of stewardship today. I'm Rob West, Rachel McDonough here today. She's our good friend, frequent contributor.

She's a CFP and a certified kingdom advisor with Wealth Squared. And we're talking about three passages and three prayers today that really get to the heart of stewardship. Now, we talked about one of them before the break.

We'll address two more of them. Rachel, take us into this second passage. Yeah, let's talk about the prodigal son. I think in this parable, we typically focus on the son. I'd like us instead to shift our attention to the father and look at him as an example of stewardship. So, when we think about transferring wealth to the next generation, our principle is typically to say, hey, is the next steward chosen and is that person really prepared to handle the responsibility?

But when we see the father in this story, he really gives us a glimpse into Father God's heart. And in this case, of course, the son takes off with half of the family fortune and squanders it. We would guess that the father probably knew his son pretty well and was probably expecting that things may not go super according to a wise plan if he entrusted his son with the wealth. And yet, the father allowed his son to make this very big stewardship blunder.

So, it would seem to us that this whole arrangement was not only unfair to the older son, but also just unwise. If there really was a true excess of wealth, again, like the woman pouring out perfume, shouldn't it have been given to the poor or brought to the temple? And yet, God doesn't seem to have that mindset around stewardship where he's worried about what mistakes are going to be made. In fact, in John 12, we see that Judas Iscariot was the disciple, the apostle, who was known as a thief and yet was left in charge of the money bag.

And he used to help himself to whatever was put into it. So, Jesus doesn't seem as concerned as we are sometimes about the mismanagement of funds. That's well said. Well, I want us to pray together.

But first, set this up. What should we be asking for as God gives us a heart of stewardship according to this passage? Yeah, I think as parents, especially for those of us who have children that we're raising or have raised, we want to see the value in the children themselves and in people and not just in money. And so, training up our children and using stewardship as the training grounds, much in the same way that the Heavenly Father uses stewardship as a training grounds for us to disciple our hearts and to operate in faith instead of in fear or trying to control everything that happens with the next generation. So good. Rachel, will you voice this prayer?

Yeah. Father God, give us eyes to see the real value is found in people and not in money. Give us tenacity to cherish and train up our children to know that You have created them to be world changers and that they can actually do way more to advance Your kingdom than just our donations or even our impact investments. God, help us to ease up our tendency to want to control things which comes from a spirit of fear and instead to have faith that You can make all things work together for our good and for the good of our children and for the world around us. Help us to co-labor with Your Holy Spirit to cultivate in the next generation that desire and hunger to hear Your voice and the desire to even do impossible things with You, that they might pull down the culture and the values of heaven into the earth and help them to teach their children in turn to do the same and let that blessing go on to a thousand generations according to Your word.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Well, Rachel, this is incredible. One passage left concerning the heart of stewardship, and I know it's one our listeners will be very familiar with. We know it is the rich fool and the story is of a farmer who has an unexpected large harvest. Of course, he tears down his barns to build bigger ones to store his windfall.

What should we take away from this? Well, I think the stewardship principle here has to do with managing a surplus. What would we do if we put ourselves into that experience of having a big windfall, a big surplus come in? I think if you're like me, the first thing that you do is get some tax advice, set up some legal structures. Maybe you need a new trust account or an LLC set up, right?

Right. But the problem with the rich fool is that he only consults himself. He doesn't consult God about the purpose of the windfall.

He operates in this dangerous independence. And so he ends up saying, what should I do self? And the advice that himself gives is, hey, you should store up and build bigger barns. And so he does that. And what happens is he really is becoming self-reliant, self-dependent, and he misses the opportunity to use the surplus for whatever purposes that God may have intended, right? Yeah, that's exactly right.

And, you know, it becomes so obvious when he says I and my over and over again. And so he thinks it's all as a result of his own effort, which, you know, we can be hard on the rich fool. We tend to do that as well and not recognize that God is the owner of everything.

That's right. So when we see the purpose of stewardship is never really accumulation or self-preservation, the money isn't supposed to replace God in our lives. God is our provider, right? So to protect us from the love of money and the deceitfulness of riches, let's pray together one more time.

Let's do that. God, give us the eyes to see the purpose of stewardship is never aimless accumulation or self-preservation. It is your job to be our Heavenly Father and take care of everything that we need.

And we trust you. Help us to trust you to do that faithfully. Protect our hearts, Lord, from the love of money and the deceitfulness of riches. They promised to provide for us.

They promised to protect us and give us significance, but it's all a mirage. Wealth can never replace you in the throne room of our hearts. And when we feel mammon tightening its grip on our attention and on our affections, when we feel its gravity pulling on our worship, help us to wisely and quickly unclench our fists and give more of it away, lest we bow down to it.

And help us to believe fully that it's actually very easy for you to entrust more resources to us when they are needed. And if you call us to steward a surplus, help us to see the purpose of that stewardship is not self-preservation, self-reliance, or self-indulgence, but instead that stewardship is about pursuing joyful, loving relationship with you as our King and with our brothers and sisters for all of eternity. For your family is the treasure of heaven. Help us, Father, to cherish what you cherish and thus become more like you. In Jesus' holy name, amen. Amen.

That's incredible. You know, as you were talking about the rich fool, I was thinking about our study, Rich Toward God, that we produced last year. And I love this closing in the last chapter. It says, when our abundance is found in the person of Jesus, we become open-handed with our finances as we seek his kingdom and his righteousness. Generosity is no longer something we do out of obligation or to be seen by others, but it becomes something that flows out of a heart, a grateful heart that treasures God and longs to see others come to know and love him. And that's really the heart of stewardship, is that our lives reflect God's character to the world. We're image bearers of a relational and generous God. And you've captured that so beautifully today, Rachel. Thank you for sharing these passages and these prayers. I know it's been meaningful for our audience. This is my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Rob.

All right. That's Rachel McDonough. She's a certified financial planner and a certified kingdom advisor and frequent contributor here at Faith and Finance. You can read more of Rachel's articles at WealthSQ.com. That's WealthSQ.com. Back with your calls after this, 800-525-7000. Stick around. Explore a new way of investing that aligns with your values.

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Choose your own provider and select the program that fits your needs and budget. CHM is the original faith-based way of taking care of your medical bill costs. Learn more at chministries.org slash faithfi. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Looking forward to taking your calls and questions today. The number to get in on the conversation, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We'd love to tackle whatever you're wrestling with in your financial life today, but do it through the lens of biblical wisdom, helping you to be that wise and faithful steward of what God has entrusted to you. Let's begin in Illinois. Hi, Dorothy.

Go ahead. I just received a little unexpectedly about $17,000 and I wanted to put it into CDs because they were paying 4 and 4.5% recently. And then I went to my bank and they don't have them anymore.

That was a special deal. So I was watching a TV show and somebody there said, you know, you need to find high interest bank savings accounts, but I don't know where to find those. And then I browse and online, I find some online banks that are offering 4% or so. And I just was a little uncomfortable doing that.

What would you advise? Yeah, yeah, that really is the place, Dorothy, you're going to find those attractive yields that you're looking for. The good news is, you know, these days, just about every bank, we're doing more and more business online, whether or not they have a brick and mortar operation, but they all have the same protections, they have the same requirements in terms of the assets. And they have the same FDIC insurance, which is the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States government. So I'm very comfortable with you using an online bank.

And basically what that means is they just don't have a brick and mortar facility. And they're able to take that savings by not maintaining those buildings and staffing them and pass that along to you in the form of higher returns or yields. So what I would suggest is that you keep your checking account with your primary bank where you banked all the while, and then open an online high yield savings account with one of the online banks.

And I'll tell you where to go to look for that in a moment, and then link the two in that way with a couple of clicks of a button in a smartphone app or on the web, not on public Wi Fi at a coffee shop, but from the comfort of your home, you can move money back and forth through the ACH system, you know, within two to three days without any fees. And that would allow you to get that higher yield. But when you need to access the money, you'd move it right back over to your checking account.

So you can get to it. The place I would go would be one of two places if you want an institution, actually a credit union that aligns with your values as a Christ follower, I would look at Christian Community Credit Union, you can find them on the web at join Christian community.com. They have a great CD option and a high yield savings option up to a certain amount. If you're looking just for the highest yield, I would look for something that's at least four and a half star out of five rated with FDIC insurance at bankrate.com. The website again is bankrate.com. If you click high yield savings, what you will see is those institutions that are offering the highest yield right now. And they're all five star rated. So you can see, you know how they stack up in terms of customer service and safety and all of those issues.

It'll tell you whether or not there's a minimum required. And what you will see is, you know, there's banks today right now that are still offering four and a half percent. Okay, this is wonderful. Thank you. And I'm comfortable with credit union. So look there first.

Okay, yeah, that's join Christian community.com. Okay, thank you very much. All right. Absolutely. Thank you for calling, Dorothy. We appreciate it. Let's go to Ohio. Hi, Nita.

Go ahead. Hi, I am 65 years old. I have a Jackson fund that I've had about 10 years. So it has matured to the point where I need to take $2,100 a month out of it.

I've been doing that since June. I put 900 of that back into a pretty good growth fund investment to save some of it back. But I'm using that extra 1100 to have fun with my kids and my grandkids, help them pay for Christian school sports. And my question was whether, you know, kind of feel like I'm giving some of my kids inheritance to them now by doing it this way. Yeah.

Should I be putting all 2100 back in the grow and let it have it later in life? They're still gonna have money there later. So right now, I'm really enjoying this money.

Yeah. Well, you know, here's what one of my mentors Ron Blue says, he says, Do you're given while you're living, so you're knowing where it's going. And I kind of love this idea. I mean, you're taking a part of it and redirecting it into continuing to build your long term savings and your net worth, which as you said, will ultimately be given away to either heirs or ministry. And you're taking a part of it and using it to enjoy and remember, money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes. So that means we should give it away. That means we should use it to provide that also means we should use it to enjoy and I can't think of a better thing than for you to help your kids get a Christian education for you to, you know, take them on trips and do fun things and spoil them from time to time. I mean, that sounds fabulous to me.

From a pure financial planning standpoint, you're going to get this 2100 for the rest of your life. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. And that fund is still growing. I mean, it's not going down.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. And what other assets do you have right now? My house, my car and about 800,000 in investments.

Okay. And are you living off of the 800,000? Or is that just growing? No, I have my pension, I have Social Security, and I still work part time. So I get with this 2000, I have about an $8,000 a month income.

And that's without touching any of the 800k? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I mean, that's incredible, Nita. So I think even where you're at is to consider just what is your financial finish line? I mean, I would even question and I'm not saying you just kind of spend frivolously by any means. I mean, you're a steward of God's resources, we need to be faithful and managing that means that means we start with our values and our priorities. Where is God leading me? How, how can I be the best manager of these resources? And I don't think that means just continuing to increase your lifestyle.

And I'm not hearing that from you. But I do think there's an opportunity when we get to this season of life where, you know, you have plenty of resources coming in. Now, you may not be able to work forever. But between your pension and the 2100 a month and Social Security, you're probably, you know, you're probably in a situation where you could essentially say, okay, I can draw a financial finish line at X. And then beyond that, you know, I'm able to accelerate my giving. Perhaps, you know, you take the full 2100 and use it in the same way you are now to to bless your family and help offset, you know, additional expenses for Christian school. But I think, at the very least, just continue on exactly what you're doing. I love it. But I would even say, perhaps with the counsel of an advisor, you might even be able to look at this again and just say, you know, is there a finish line that allows me to do even more?

So long as it's aligned with your values and priorities. Does that make sense? Yeah, exactly. And in the meantime, God hasn't brought me my Blue Corbett yet. So I guess that's not in the plan.

That was wonderful thing in life, because I was 12 years old. I love it. I love it. Thanks for your call. God bless you, folks. Thanks for being along with us today. Such a joy to hopefully offer some encouragement, some hope and some sound biblical wisdom as it relates to your role in managing God's money. Hope you have a great weekend and come back and join us next week. We'll see you then. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.