God’s Promise to Provide

This Faith and Finance Live is actually prerecorded, so please don't call in. The Lord will provide. It's one of the most repeated promises in the Bible. Why, then, is it often difficult to believe?

Hi, I'm Rob West. Whenever we're tested, we can take comfort in knowing the Lord remains in control and is always faithful. Today we'll talk about finding peace and contentment in uncertain times.

Then we'll have some great calls lined up, but since we're not live today, please hold your calls until next time. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to know that God's Word contains many promises. If you use a concordance to look up the word promise or Google Bible and promise, you'll see a long list of verses with God's promises to us, and there are dozens that reassure us that God will provide for our needs. And if we take an honest look at our lives, we'll see that God provides not only for our financial needs by giving us the ability to earn a living, but for many other needs as well. Our family, friends, and our church, for example.

God knows that we need all those things, and He provides them. Even one of the names for God found in the Bible contains that promise. In the King James Version, we read in Genesis 22, 14, And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

Other versions translate the Hebrew name Jehovah-jireh as the Lord will provide. And of course, that's where God provides a ram in a thicket, in place of the sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac. But something very important preceded God's provision on Mount Moriah—obedience. After waiting a century for a son, Abraham was prepared to offer him to the Lord as commanded. And how do we relate that lesson to the challenges we face today?

Well, first, by understanding that nothing's changed. God kept His promise almost 4,000 years ago with Abraham, and He still keeps His promises today. There's no doubt that Abraham feared losing the child that he and Sarah had waited so long to have, but he overcame that fear with obedience.

Somewhere deep down, Abraham found peace in knowing that he was doing God's will by bringing Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah. And that's how we can find peace today—by obeying the Lord. But what does it mean that God will provide? When we obey the Lord, we're acting according to His will, not ours. You see, if you're deeply afraid that God won't keep His promise to provide, there's a good chance that what you really fear is that He won't provide in the way you want Him to provide—emphasis on want. God promises to provide for our needs, not our wants. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 33, and 34, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms not to be afraid for our daily provision.

He says, You see, when we obey God, we're seeking His kingdom and becoming more like Christ, who was obedient unto death. Now, for our purposes today, let's just focus on obeying or following God's financial principles. These include acknowledging that God owns everything, and that we're only stewards or managers of what He gives us.

We're to live on less than we earn, pay our taxes, save, and be generous. Why do we do those things? Well, for the same reason we exist— to glorify God. When we follow His financial principles, especially by being generous, we act differently than the world, and that points others to Christ. The Bible may have as many verses on finding peace and contentment as it does on God's promise to provide. And in Philippians 4, Paul says, God knows what we really need even better than we do, and He's provided those things every day of our lives up to this point.

So why would we think He won't in the future? Our faith isn't blind. When it comes to God's faithfulness to provide, past performance is a guarantee of future results. If you find yourself worrying about the future, my encouragement to you is to take that fear to the Lord in prayer. I hope that's an encouragement to you. All right, we're going to head to a break, so don't go anywhere.

Still a lot more to come. Even though we're away from the studio today and you shouldn't call in, we have some great questions that you're really going to enjoy as we continue to apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. By the way, we're not live today. We're away from the studio, so don't call in.

But we have some great questions that we lined up in advance. By the way, this ministry is entirely listener supported. That means we rely on your financial gifts and support to do what we do on the air every day. If you consider a gift, we'd certainly be grateful. Just head to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com, and click the Give button.

Thanks in advance. All right, let's head to the phones. Let's begin today in Georgia. Sandy, you'll be our first caller.

Go right ahead. Thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate your ministry, and I do live debt-free because of a crown class I took years ago.

I thank you so much. But I'll be 70 soon, and I was shocked last Saturday when I got a bill in the mail for the term life insurance that I had gotten during my retirement. I've been paying close to $2,000 a year for the last five years, and as I turn 70, that's going to double. And I've seen these commercials for companies that will buy out your policy, even term policies, and I was wondering what you think about them.

Yeah. You know, it probably would not work out in your situation, just given that you're about to have this dramatic increase in the price of that policy. Typically, this life insurance settlement, which is basically a term for selling your life insurance policy, it's a one-time cash payment. You know, these are typically investors who are looking to purchase life insurance policies, add them to their portfolio.

They're typically looking for sellers who are over the age of 65. You certainly are, as you mentioned, but have limited life expectancies, and these policies are most profitable, obviously, to an investor. When you pass away, they get the death benefit of the policies. There is the ability to buy term insurance, and so you would want to determine whether you have the ability to convert that to a whole life policy, because that would really be critical in this sale. So I think, you know, unless you knew you had those provisions and, you know, without kind of a terminal illness of some kind, you're probably not going to be a candidate here for one of these policy sales.

You know, I think the way to think about it, I realize maybe it's frustrating that you've, you know, put this money into it, you're not getting anything out of it. I mean, typically with a term policy, we're buying it to offset a major risk that exists. That risk is that at your death, you'd create a hardship, a financial challenge for a loved one because your income would go away, or they would incur additional expense because you're a primary caregiver, and they'd have to replace that with care outside the home for maybe small children. And so we offset that risk by buying pure insurance. So it's not a savings vehicle, we're just paying the true mortality expense based on your age and health and the death benefit payable to that person who would incur that hardship at your death.

And Lord willing, we don't need to use it because that means we've lived beyond that. And because we've been saving diligently toward during our working years, when it gets to the point where it just dramatically increases in price, because you're beyond the level term, then you drop it because you don't need it anymore. Because you've saved and you've got retirement assets and nobody at your death would experience any kind of additional hardship financially. But then you might say, well, but I'm not getting anything back.

Well, that's true. It's kind of like your homeowner's insurance or your car insurance. You know, you you'd hope you pay for it to cover yourself financially, but you hope you don't ever have to use it.

And you're never going to get anything back out of it. It's there to offset that risk that exists. And I think that's perhaps the thing to think about here, as you consider, okay, I've reached the end of the term, I either need to get a new term policy, which would be very expensive at age 70. Or I let it go. And there's really not a need for life insurance anymore. And so I can recoup this monthly premium back into my budget. Does that make sense?

It does. And, and the more I've thought about it over the over the course of this week, I've thought, I still have really good health. In fact, I called one of these companies, and they did a short assessment, and they said, No, you don't qualify.

And I thought, Well, Lord, I'm thankful that I have good health. Yeah, I just need to get a part time job and squirrel that money away to be of help. And in the way that I was wanting to with some custody issues with grandkids, and, and that may be my best choice. I'm certainly not going to put 4000 a year into insurance. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that at all. I think you'd be much better served taking that socket and away in a savings account, or as you said, use it for whatever priorities the Lord lays on your heart, based on your values. This life insurance is really not a vehicle that, you know, will provide the benefit that it was intended for.

Because again, you're beyond that period, it only pays obviously at your death. And, you know, given the policy you're describing in your health condition, which is, I agree, is a blessing from the Lord, it's, it's probably not something that anybody's going to be interested in buying. So I think we say, Okay, it did its job. Thank you, Lord, I didn't need to, no one needed to claim on it. And now I trust you as my provider.

And, you know, I'm going to look for ways to, you know, work as unto the Lord, and I'm going to accept whatever provision comes my way to use according to my values and my priorities, including those sweet little ones that you mentioned, but I don't think this life insurance policy is that source of income that you're looking for. Okay, well, thank you so much. All right, Sandy. Hey, all the best to you. And may the Lord bless you. Thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it.

Let's head to Missouri. Hi, Laura, thank you for your call today. How can I serve you? Hi. Well, I've been listening to your show for a short time.

But so far, I love what I'm hearing. And you seem to be quite a help for a lot of people. So I do have a question. I'm trying to figure out exactly where I should put my emergency fund money. Yeah, I have about $15,000 in cash in a home safe. And then I'm trying to save about $100, well, about $400 to $500 a month to put over, I guess, in a little money market thing with my financial company that I invest in.

Did I invest with? Okay, so I guess I'm thinking, do I need to get that cash out of my home safe and put it somewhere? Yeah, it's a good question.

So a couple of thoughts. I think the first question is, how much do we want in the way of reserves of what I would call your emergency fund? And what you'll find is that most financial advisors and I would agree with this would say three to six months expenses is probably that right range.

So you total up all of your expenses over a month's time, multiply that by three or six, and somewhere in that range is really what your goal is. Now, where do you keep that? Well, I would say the majority of that you would want to keep in a high yield savings account, it certainly could be in a money market account that, you know, as long as it's not a money market fund, and it's a money market account, it should have FDIC insurance. Or if you're in a government money market, it would be in government bills, bonds and notes. But you could ask about that. But yeah, it should be paying a very attractive interest rate, probably in the fours right now.

And it should be very liquid. I like the fact that it's not in your primary spending account where you pay your bills out of, because it's just a little harder to get to. And by definition, we want it to be a little harder to get to, I'd rather you have to transfer it in and it take a day or so to get there because that's going to help you to keep it allocated only to the emergency expenses. And then with regard to cash at home, usually you want to think in terms of maybe a number of weeks worth of expenses that you'd want available.

The general rule of thumb is somewhere between one to two weeks worth of expenses in case there was a disruption in the banking service or maybe a natural disaster. Hey, let's finish up off the air. I've got to take a break. Just a quick reminder, we're not here today, so don't call in, but we're going to head to a break and much more coming just after this. Stay with us. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host.

Our team is away from the studio today, so don't call in. But coming up, we'll have more of your questions right here on the program. Hey, let me take a moment to mention the Faith Fi app. We'd love for you to download it. Just head to your app store wherever you download apps and search for Faith Fi. That's Faith Fi.

You can manage your money. You can access the best content in biblical finance, podcasts, articles and videos. You can also participate in our Faith Fi community where you can post questions and get answers from others on their stewardship journey. You'll find it in your app store. Just search for Faith Fi. If it's easier, head to our website at faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com and you'll see the app right there on the home page. Just before the break, we were talking to Laura in Missouri. She was sharing that she's got some emergency savings, about fifteen hundred dollars in a safe at home. She's putting about four to five hundred dollars a month in a money market account that is with an advisor she uses to manage some other assets. She was just wondering about how much should be at home, how much should be outside the home in an account like her money market, what's an appropriate target. Laura, as I was sharing, the goal is three to six months expenses. I'd keep that either in a money market account with FDIC insurance or a high yield savings.

You should get about four percent. In terms of the cash at home, I like it being in a fireproof safe. Typically, folks think in terms of one to two weeks worth of expenses in case of some kind of banking system disruption or a natural disaster, but give me your thoughts on that and whether you have any other questions. Well, I appreciate the advice on that, but I do have one other follow-up regarding the savings.

My financial advisor has always said if you need any emergency money, just call him and he can get some money transferred to the money market account to use and he said he always has some money put off to the side for that. Now, I guess I'm just wondering how that sounds to you. Sounds reasonable? It does sound reasonable. I think I would perhaps like a little bit easier access to that money than having to call him and reach out to him and he has to be available to get the call and get the money transferred. That's why I think the money that he's managing, my preference would be, although it certainly can work the way you and he have been doing it, my preference would be he's managing the money that is meant to be long-term in nature and at any given time, there will be something likely in that cash portion of that account, the money market, which is when he's buying and selling things or when money's coming into the account, it goes into cash or in the money market and then he deploys it. I would just separate that and then for my emergency fund, I typically recommend folks set up an online bank savings account that's FDIC insured and you can link that to your checking account and then if you ever need money for something unexpected, you just log in, not on public Wi-Fi using good practices, but you'd log in and you'd just transfer money into your checking account through the ACH system, which would happen within 24 hours or so.

It might even be quicker if the bank uses FedNow, but that way you're in control of being able to access this cash as you need it and that would be the account where you set the goal of three to six months expenses. Well, so do I ask him to provide me with that cash he's got put off to the side each month? No, I think that raises the income too much. You know, if I take the money, that would raise the income. Yeah, so I guess what I'm saying is right now you said you have a surplus every month and you're sending that to him, correct?

No, no. Okay, I thought you were putting four to five hundred a month away. Oh, well, yes, okay, you're right, but yes, I guess, well, he's not, he doesn't really handle that. That's just like a little extra money market checking account. Okay, got it. Yeah, so what I was saying is whether it's that money market checking account or whether you move it to an online savings and link it to your primary operating account, I would just start funding that account with your four to five hundred a month, not putting it in that portfolio that he's managing, keeping it separate, and then that way if you need to pull it for any reason, you could do that. But at the end of the day, as long as you know that you have three to six months expenses ready and liquid, you know, for the unexpected, that's my main concern.

I just think it's a little simpler if it's separate from that account that he's managing for the long term. Certainly, that makes sense. Okay, well, I appreciate your advice very, very much. All right, Laura, God bless you. Thanks for calling today. We've got two lines open, folks.

Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand. Give us a call. Let's go to Texas and talk to Nancy. Go right ahead. Hi, Ron.

Hi there. Thanks for calling. Well, you're welcome. My pleasure.

I'm glad you're a source that we can actually talk to. And that's just awesome. Well, thanks. I have two annuities and I don't understand them. I'm not sure what they're all about, but I do receive payments from them, I think quarterly. So I wondered if you could just kind of give me an overrun on annuities.

Sure, be happy to. You and everybody else don't understand annuities because they're very complicated. So don't feel bad about that. And it's one of the reasons why they're not my favorite vehicle. They're complex. There's a lot of fine print. There's a lot of embedded fees and expenses. And typically, there's a ceiling on the amount you can earn inside them. Now, in exchange for that, there are some benefits.

And that's why people buy them. Number one, often they provide a floor on the downside. So it's a way to guard against principal loss. Number two, you can get a guaranteed rate of return and sometimes it can be fairly attractive. And so if you're looking to transfer the risk of managing money, let's say in a stock and bond portfolio, where you do have the ability to lose money, you want to transfer that risk to an insurance company in exchange for a guaranteed return or a percentage of the upside on some investment returns, but with a floor for the downside. That's where annuities can work well.

The challenge is, in addition to the things I mentioned about the cost and the complexity, is you're losing access to your money, at least for a period of time, because there's surrender charges if you want to get your money back. Which is why I say I typically like investing and saving outside of insurance products, where I take a prudent approach to build a thoughtful portfolio that's consistent with my age and goals and objectives. I get 100% of the upside. Yeah, I'm taking some risk. Then I could lose some money. But that's why I take a long-term view. And if I need the money, I can always get to it. So I think the next step for you is to understand exactly what you have.

And I think that involves going back to the advisor, getting them to explain it to you, or perhaps getting a second opinion, somebody who could look at it and give you a fresh thought on what it actually is inside the annuity. Hang on the inline. We'll talk a bit off the air. We'll be right back. This is Faith and Finance Live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us, because today's broadcast was previously recorded. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you. So please stay tuned. Let's stay in Texas, Jim, as a first-time caller.

Go ahead, sir. I'm still working, but I have a 401k, and I'm 72. And I've been moving my 401k. I started moving out some money into the regular IRA.

And in both advisors that I've tried, I've gone nowhere. I'll tell you the sum. It was quite a bit of money. It was $150,000. It was a lot of money.

I've gone nowhere. I'll tell you the sum. It was quite a bit of money. It was $150,000, and it's down to $139,000. And I know that the market's not doing well, but I also know there are other areas you can put that money in, and I can't seem to get the advisors to understand that.

Am I wrong in my thinking? Not necessarily. There are multiple asset classes and investment options. What specifically are you thinking about, Jim, that you would like them to explore that they're not?

Well, I would like them to explore. I don't like paying fees and not making any money. That's my number one gripe right there. If I was making some money and paying the fees, that would be fine.

But I have to pay that fee, and that adds to the loss also. I had them pull it out, and I thought they were putting it in CDs, but they were not. So it's a question of, let's protect what we got right now with everything that's going on. Do you have a sense of what the mix of investments is in these portfolios that they're managing at a very high level? For instance, what percent's in bonds versus stocks and other asset classes?

Well, they don't have it in anything. I had them pull it all out until I got this mess straightened out. And that's one of the reasons I'm calling you.

I'm trying to find or move in a direction to someone I can trust that understands my side also. Yeah, no, I understand that. Let's talk about just at a high level how you might think about this portfolio, and then we'll talk about where you go from here. So you said you're 72. Give me just a total rough estimate of what you have in investable retirement assets between your 401k and the IRAs and everything you have.

Oh, I don't know, over 500. Okay, and you said you're still working, Jim, and are you planning to continue to do that for some time? Yes, I've made a commitment to sponsor certain ministries, and as long as God keeps me healthy, I'll continue to work. I love it. We were created to be workers, so I think that's great. You continuing to work as unto the Lord, especially with your goal to use that as an engine for giving.

Man, that's awesome. I suspect, Jim, between your social security and the income you have, that's enough to cover your bills, and therefore you don't have to touch this roughly half million, is that right? No, I don't have to touch anything. I'm doing fine.

God has blessed me immensely, there's no doubt about that. The four things you mentioned, one of them I don't worry about it because I have no bills, and the other three, they're fully covered. So I've listened to what you had to say, and the concern I have is when I start moving this money over is the trustworthiness of organizations and places to put it at.

That's my biggest issue. I gotcha, and I love that because life gets simpler as you eliminate these budgets. Once you cap your lifestyle, the live bucket's gone.

Once you're debt-free, the owe bucket's gone. Then it's just a matter of giving and growing, and it sounds like you've defined enough, how much is enough with regard to the growth, although you want to be a good steward and grow this well, and you don't want to be paying a bunch of fees and not growing it because you do want to be a good steward. But at the same time, you can, I think, accelerate even more your giving. One of the great opportunities that you have right now is because you're over 70 and a half, you can do a qualified charitable distribution, which means you can transfer up to $100,000 out of the IRA and go straight to any ministry you want, and you don't add that to your adjusted gross income for the year, and they get the full amount. So that would be a way to satisfy the required minimum once that hits, but even more than that, it's a way to do some accelerated giving without you paying taxes on that money as it comes out, and that could replace money you were already planning to give out of cash, or it could be additional giving.

So just keep that in mind. In terms of where to go from here, I think you do need an advisor where you feel like you're on the same page. I mean, yes, the way most advisors are compensated, and I think this is the right approach, is they get a percentage of the fees under management, which means you're right, if they lose money, they're still getting paid, although the one and a half percent or one and a quarter of a percent of $420,000 is less than $500,000, but you're right, they're still getting a paycheck. They are incented to grow it because the only way they get a raise, make more money, is to grow your portfolio because that's a higher percentage, but I think you need somebody that you're aligned with in terms of the strategy, the approach. I do think you need to take a long-term perspective with whatever portion you want to keep invested and you don't want to carve out for additional giving, and you know, typically at age 70, you'd want to have maybe, you know, 30 percent in stocks to provide a growth kicker.

You'd want maybe 10 percent is no more than 10 percent in precious metals, the rest in bonds. Bonds are going to start doing well as interest rates come down next year, so you need to find that advisor that you're comfortable with, that has the right communication rhythms, that's going to give you the time and attention where together you're going to come up with that investment strategy, and then he or she can deploy that strategy, and yes, they'll get paid for their services. We recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. I'd recommend you interview two or three CKAs there in Texas at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. You can click find a CKA, and these are men and women who've met high standards and character and competence, and they've been trained to bring a biblical worldview, pastor and client references, they've signed a statement of faith.

It's the only industry designation for biblically wise financial advice that's widely accepted, so that would be my best advice and thoughts on your next steps, but let me know what you're thinking. Well, let me back up to the charitable gift. I give, but I don't claim it on my taxes enough. My reasoning is, if I claim it on my taxes, I've made money. This is me personally thinking this way, then I need to put another 10 percent in there.

Does that make sense? I don't believe that giving, personally, I don't think believe that giving should be something you do for a tax break. I don't do that.

Yeah, well, when I... That's okay, no, that's okay for other people, but for me it's not. That's my personal opinion. Now, but I do like the idea of what you said about the charitable giving. I can give it, and no taxes will come out of it, and they get a hundred percent through that charitable, is that correct?

That's exactly right. Let me just comment on the first part. You're absolutely entitled, and I believe, I would affirm the idea that you should have your own convictions about how you approach your giving and whether or not you take that deduction.

You need to be fully convinced in your own mind, and you are, and that's great. I support that. Yeah, with the qualified charitable distribution, QCD, if you have a money in an IRA, you can give it directly to a 501c3 charity. It comes out of the IRA, goes straight to the ministry. You never get it, but you don't get it added to your taxable income as a taxable distribution as you would with any other money you're taking out that's not going through a qualified charitable distribution.

It's a phenomenal tool. You can do up to a hundred thousand, and why pay tax on that money? I'd rather you get it to these ministries you're supporting.

And I could do that on a monthly basis? Absolutely. Okay, thank you for that intro. That's really important. That throws a big picture in the situation.

Yeah, so what you want to do, and I've got to hit a break here, so I'm going to have to let you go. Call back anytime, but call the custodian of the IRA or call your advisor, either one, and just say, I want to do a qualified charitable distribution. They'll know exactly what that is. Alert the ministry that it's coming, and the money will go straight over.

It doesn't get added to your taxable income, and they'll have even more to work with. Hey, God bless you, Jim. Thanks for being on the program today. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. By the way, we're not live today.

We're away from the studio, so don't call in, but we have some great questions that we lined up in advance. By the way, this ministry is entirely listener supported. That means we rely on your financial gifts and support to do what we do on the air every day. If you consider a gift, we'd certainly be grateful. Just head to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com, and click the give button.

Thanks in advance. All right, let's head back to the phones. Let's head, well, a lot of calls from Texas today.

We're going to stay right there. Hi, Carol, go ahead. Hi, I need to, I'm 70 years old, 74, I'm sorry, and I'm single, been single for 30 years. I have been a tither and gave offerings my whole life, and I've never prospered, and I asked God one time, God, why is it that I give money, but I never receive money? And my identity got stolen, so that's what caused that. You know, but they're, you know, they've been watching me because they know I love God. I want to set this world on fire for Jesus. I want to put a smile on God's face.

I want to take care of those kids over in Haiti and Ethiopia, and it's going to take a lot of money to do what I want to do. I'm a single woman. I don't know any Christians. I go to church, but I need, I need a husband. I need a godly husband who cares about Jesus, don't care about nothing but the cross.

What Jesus went through to set his people free, and kind of where I'm at, but I need, I need direction and finances. I need, you know, I've been listening to you guys for about two weeks now, and I've learned a lot, but I wish you were on more than one hour. Well, Carol, I've got a lot to learn. Yes, ma'am.

Well, boy, what a, what a story. I'd love that your, your heart posture is just all about serving the Lord and proclaiming Christ, because that's why we're here, right? And you, you've been a, well, you've been a faithful giver, and you've been honoring the Lord, and you give cheerfully, and, you know, sometimes we can get caught up in the thinking of, oh Lord, you know, I've given so much, and why am I not receiving, and, you know, I think what he wants is for us just to do what you just described, and that is to just focus on growing in our Christ-likeness. I mean, that's what the Christian life is all about, is just posturing our hearts, and pursuing the Lord, and handling his money, because everything you have, and everything I have, Carol, belongs to him. And the goal is to handle money in such a way that God is our, it's evident that God is our true treasure, and not the things of this world. And obviously you've lived modestly, and you've got some desires of your heart, both in the area of giving, and being able to find a spouse that loves Jesus, and that together the two of you can serve the Lord, and that may be part of God's plan, it may not be, but I think at the end of the day we can rest in the fact that he alone is sufficient, and that he is our abundance.

It's not that he's the connection to the abundance, he is the abundance. And when we trust in, and rest in the fact that he said, I will never leave you, or forsake you, and that his promises are true, and that part of the privilege he gives us, the joy that he gives us, and I heard it in your voice, is being able to partner with him in ministry through our giving, to support his work to the least of these. You know, when we look at scripture we see different types of giving that's on the heart of God. We see the ministry of God's word, preaching, teaching, and discipleship. We see the ministry of God's mercy. We also see the ministry of God's justice. And you know, you're giving to those things that are on the heart of God, that absolutely pleases the Lord, and so your only task is to do it with a cheerful heart, and with the right heart posture, as an overflow of your love and devotion for him, as an act of worship, and with that comes joy that we can't experience anywhere else. And ultimately it's all about the cross, as you said, and knowing and trusting that we've placed our lives into Jesus' care as our Savior, and submitting to him in that way, and once we accept him as the Savior for the forgiveness of our sins, and place our trust in him that we have eternal life at that point, we're in a right relationship with him, and then we can be throughout the rest of our lives committed to growing in Christ's likeness and stewardship.

Stewardship of time, and talent, and truth, and relationships, and yes, our money, and that includes our ability to be generous. So I like where you're headed here, Carol. Here's what I want to do.

I want to do two things. Number one, I want to pray for you. And then second, I want to connect you with what we call a certified Christian financial counselor, if you're interested.

Thank you so much. Well, this will be a man or a woman that has been trained, and their ministry is to serve God's people in this area of financial management, and budgeting, and giving, and just all the things that we know are on the heart of God's people. And we're going to cover the cost of that. There's not going to be any cost to you, but this will be somebody who can perhaps help you get your financial house in order, answer any questions you have, and let's see if God doesn't use that to perhaps get you moving even further in the direction that he has for you financially. But let me pray for you. Father, we thank you for Carol. Thank you for the truth that she proclaimed today, that you, Lord, are the creator of everything, that you sent your son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, Lord, to put us in a right standing with you through his resurrection.

And when we place our trust in him, we know that we're in fellowship with you. You've adopted us into your family, and that you'll come again, and that we'll live eternally with you. Lord, I just pray that you would, in light of your will, honor the desires of her heart.

You know what those are better than we do, and so we just ask you to be near to her, to give her wisdom, you'd surround her with community of people that love her and love you, and we just look forward to what you're going to do in her life in the days ahead until you call her home. And we ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen. Carol, thank you for calling today. May the Lord bless you, and if we can do anything to serve you, let us know.

You stay on the line. We're going to get your information and get one of our certified Christian financial counselors in touch with you to see how they can serve you. God bless you. Well folks, you know, that's what it's all about. We want to be faithful stewards of God's resources, but it's not about the money, is it? It's about our hearts. God's always been about our hearts. And here's one of my experiences, is that money is the training ground of the heart. You know, the way we work out our values and our priorities is most evident in the tangible daily expression of how we handle God's money. Now you might say, how is that, Rob?

How is me going to the grocery store, you know, evidence of my walk with him? Well, it says something about our priorities. You show me your financial accounts, and I'll tell you what's important to you. And I'm talking to myself as well. Our money management tells a story about our priorities, and the question is, does that line up truly with what's most important to us?

And I think that's something we should always be really diligent in exploring. Hey, let's head back to the phones here in our final segment today. We're going to go to Arkansas. Kenneth, thank you for your patience and for your call. How can I serve you? Thank you so much for taking my call.

I've got a question. My sister and I have a property that we share ownership because my dad signed it over to us about 20 years ago. It's about 70 acres of land, farmhouse, what have you. My dad just passed away because he's been living on the property, even though it's been in our name for all that time. My dad just passed away in July, and we're looking at selling the property because it's beginning to become somewhat of a burden. Neither one of us live where the property is located. And we're curious about what capital gains, how that plays into the equation.

Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately, Kenneth, and I'm not an attorney, so it's always good to check with your CPA and, you know, an attorney, but, and really, this is a CPA issue. But just generally speaking, you know, the downside of your dad giving you all this property, and I assume he, you know, gave it to you as a gift and then probably filed a gift tax form, even though there wasn't any tax due, it was a part of his lifetime exclusion. When he did that, you inherited his original cost basis. So it comes with the gift, if you will, the original cost basis, so that now, if you're to liquidate this property to determine capital gains, because you haven't lived there two out of the last five years, you and or your sister, the gain is the selling price of what you get for it minus that original purchase price, plus any improvements that have been made that increase the cost basis. And that's going to leave you with a capital gain long term. And if you have income, let's say you married filing jointly income of somewhere between 80,000 and 400 and nearly 500,000, you're going to be in a 15% capital gain, long term capital gain rate. So you'd be 15% of whatever is the profit.

You know, this doesn't help you. But if he he were to keep it in his name, which he didn't, and I realize he's passed away, and you you all would have inherited it through a transfer on death deed or through a will or through a trust, well, then you would have enjoyed that step up in basis to the market value as of the date of death, so that you could turn around and sell it with no capital gains, but you didn't receive it that way. And therefore, it really is going to go back to that original purchase price. Okay, well, he did not I don't know if this plays into it at all. He did not do any kind of tax info on it whatsoever. He was not a he was not that type of a person. He didn't keep up with those type issues. I know that he didn't file any kind of tax relationship with it when he signed it over. My mom died.

He became very, very aware of mortality. And he got his attorney friend to start signing over documents and my sister and I signed on we got and we took possession of that property 20 years ago, 20 years ago, even though he's lived there all this off this time. Yeah, well, regardless of how it was done, you all are on the deed. So you all are the owners. So there's no step up in basis here, it's really going to be his original purchase price, which is a part of the, you know, that that, you know, sale was recorded, and so you'll be able to establish what that price was, and then you're going to want to try to, you know, pull together to the best of your ability, any documentation on improvements, so that you can get that cost basis up if you put money into it, that improve the value, not normal maintenance, but you know, improving the value. But at the end of the day, you're going to have a profit that's derived from the selling price minus that original purchase price that goes way back, and then you're going to pay capital gains on that profit. Is there an advantage to me, I'm approaching retirement age myself, is there an advantage to us keeping this property and selling after we retire when we have a less income?

Only if you were to go below that threshold. Let's do this, you stay on the line, I've got to wrap up for today. God bless you, Kenneth, we appreciate you being on the program today. Thanks to my team today, Amy, Dan, Clara, and Jim. Thank you for being here as well. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. I hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us next time. We'll see you then.