11 January 2024 - Financial goals for the year

Meaningful life planning always begins with goals. As goals always concern the future, they are a statement of faith and one of the primary ways that we may see God at work in one's financial affairs. A goal is not a goal until it is measured in terms of amount and time period.

Here are financial principles that we should live by: • Give to God your best - Proverbs 3:9-10(MSG) Honour God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.

Malachi 3:10(NLT) Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!”

1 Corinthians 16:2(LB) On every Lord’s Day each of you should put aside something from what you have earned during the week, and use it for this offering. The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn

“Remember this - you can’t serve God and money, but you can serve God with money.” - Selwyn Hughes “It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.” - Richard Braunstein

• Set financial priorities - Proverbs 24:27(NLT) Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.

• Budget - Luke 14:28-30(MSG) ‘Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’

• Make provision for bad days - Genesis 41:34-36(NLT) Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh’s storehouses. Store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise this famine will destroy the land.

• Avoid debt where possible - Proverbs 22:7(LB) Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.

• Diversify your investments - Ecclesiastes 11:2(AMP) Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth”

• Draw up a financial plan - Proverbs 21:5(ESV) The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty

. Without a financial plan, it’s easy to drift through life, earning and spending money with no real thought for the future. Writing out a financial plan and checking it every month to see whether you’re on track, helps ensure that you know what you want out of life and are on a path to get it.