Financial Peace

I wonder how often God prepares us in ways we don't understand.

I like listening to a few different podcasts.  About half of them are sermons from various churches around the country that I respect and appreciate.  Normally these sermon topics are unrelated to each other.  It is nice to get a taste of a variety of spiritual insights.  But something unusual happened this week.  The sermons I listened to all revolved around the topic of money and putting God first in our finances. 

A few years ago our church went through the "Financial Peace" seminars from Dave Ramsey.  I learned a lot in those seminars and am grateful for the way that I have been able to live since then.  I feel blessed in so many ways.  Putting God first in our finances really does put Him first in every area of our lives.  Its no longer about me.  Its about God and others first.  The sermons that I listened to this week were great.  They were all in line with what I learned in FP and were all inspiring.  But at the same time, I felt like they were only loosely applicable because I am already doing almost everything that they recommended.  Don't get me wrong, I really believe in this stuff.  It just felt like reminders.  I need to be the bottom of my priority list.  God and others at the top.

I kept thinking,..."God, what's up with this?  Why are you reminding me of these things right now?  Have I lost my focus in what I learned?  Am I missing something?"

Well, today I kinda hit a point where it started to mean something.  This has been an interesting month for me financially.  I have had a series of things happen to my car that add up to around 1000 dollars.  I was tempted to get frustrated by it.  I really hate spending money on my car.  This is a lot all at once that I didn't see coming. 

But as I felt the annoyance growing, I also heard God whispering to me,..."Don't worry, I've got this. You've been blessed."  Those sermons really were reminders.  But reminders in advance.

Now at the moment, I don't expect anything crazy to happen.  I often hear stories about God coming through impossible situations and providing in miraculous ways.  But I have a feeling that God has already done the work for this one.  One of the things that I've done is to set up a savings account for car stuff.  I don't save as consistently as I would like to, but it more than covers this months costs.  I really didn't want to have to spend that money.  It would be nice to save it towards my next car when that day comes (hopefully not too soon). 

But here's the issue: if I save it, am I missing God's blessing?  I don't want to have such a tight grip on the blessing of God, that I strangle it.  God's blessing for this situation has already come through the truths He taught me about saving.  I have money available.  He has provided.  No fear, no worries, no stress.  Its taken care of.  And that money really isn't mine anyway.  If I spend the money and another need comes up, God will provide.  I am confident of it.  But I refuse to ignore the blessing I have available in favor of the blessing I imagine or desire that is not currently available.

So God prepares the way.  Don't miss it.  In what area has God blessed you?  Are you hanging on too tightly?