You are good, and what You do is good; teach me Your decrees. Psalm 119:68
“Though I do believe God has used our financial mess to break and rework me, I can’t in all good conscience say God caused it. He didn’t will it. I believe He allowed it; I believe He chose not to rescue us many times when He could’ve (and, frankly, I still wonder why). And while plenty of the circumstances that caused our financial breakdown — a terrible economy for one — were beyond our control, plenty were well within them. Plenty that we chose unwisely — even sinned — in.
God didn’t, for instance, tell me to encourage my husband to keep at his business even when he was ready to let it go, years before we had to let it go. I did that on my own because I was afraid, because I had married a business owner and wanted to keep it that way… and while most of the credit card bills we tried to pay each month had little to do with the “typical” overspending one associates with credit card debt, still. Still. We made bad choices. I overindulged, spent money we didn’t have — especially when it came to my kids. I sinned. I didn’t respect my husband and his prompts from God as I should’ve. I didn’t trust God as I should’ve…
I’d be remiss if — at the tail end of a book about how I found God and found Him good amid financial calamity — I didn’t talk about giving. This is the area where so many criticize the church — like all churches want is people’s money. And while, perhaps, this is what some churches or preachers or organizations are after, it’s not what God’s about.
He doesn’t need our money, and He doesn’t want our cash. God wants us to trust Him with our financial resources and love Him more than money. When we give (aside from helping others, which if course is a huge component of this), and give faithfully and generously, we show this love and trust.
Or course, through my own financial journey, I have failed at this discipline more than any other. Perhaps it’s because giving is my “top” spiritual gift that I’ve failed so dramatically. But it’s been hard, when faced with losing so much, to keep giving. God and I (and my husband) are still working through this. But I want to give — long to give — because I know that, when we offer up what we barely have, and when we hand over what we so desperately need, we find God and we find Him good.”
Caryn Rivadeneira in Broke: What Financial Desperation Revealed About God’s Abundance (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014) 63, 161.
This book brings together my word for the year, abundance, and the theme I am currently exploring, debt, in gripping story form. If you fancy stories and want to grow in your stewardship, this book is for you! It’s basically the testimony of a family that had great material resources, made many of the choices that society tells us to make, and went broke. And, on the journey out of debt, desperation, and disaster, they found God and found Him good.
If you feel stuck in debt and are struggling, Rivadeneira would likely encourage you to confess the sins that got you into that mess, including blaming God for it, and start making good, disciplined choices. Live within your means and pay off your debt as soon as possible. Stop rationalizing disobedience. Make a list of the things you are grateful for and thank God. And don’t stop giving, because God never stops giving to you. Do these things and you too will “find God and find Him good.”