What I Did To Get Out Of Debt

The first thing I did was to have a budget; not just a budget in my head, but one that is written down.  I would carry this budget around in my purse and I would look at it everyday to make sure I was on track.  If necessary I would make adjustments.  A budget is your map or prophesy to where you are going.  It gives you power and authority over your finances.  You tell your money where you want it to go.  Without a budget, it is like throwing your money up in the air and wherever it lands is what gets paid or brought.  When we do this any wind can come along and take authority or power over our money.  A budget keeps you focused.

Pick a bill you want to pay off (I usually pick the smallest one first).  Every month you put as much money as you can on this bill.  Your other bills you might have to pay only the minimum balance.  I usually make my budgets according to when I get paid and I'll make them up to 6 months.  This way I can see the bill being paid off.  Once this bill is paid off, I pick another one.

I commit my budget to the LORD.  Proverbs 16:3 states, "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (KJV)  Budgets are hard to follow especially in the beginning when all you see is debt.  Just remember at the appointed time, it shall speak (come to pass).  I wish it were easier, but to get different results we have to do something different and changing old habits and ways of thinking takes time and hard work.  That is why it is important to team up with GOD!  HE puts the super in your natural abilities.  HE overrides time and makes what looked like impossible, possible.  HE makes a way out of not way.  HE has a million ways of getting you where you need to go, but you need to team up with HIM.  That means you no longer sit on the side lines hoping things will change.  A budget is your first step.  A budget tells GOD, you are ready to be his friend, his partner, someone HE can trust with secrets.  Remember the story of the talents (see Matthew 25:14:30), the ones who did something with what GOD gave them were given more and the one who sat on the side line doing nothing lost the little he had.

Don't forget when you are making your budget, include everything, food, clothing, co-payments, gas, savings, tithes/offerings and entertainment.  GOD has provided for your need, write it down!

ALWAYS PUT MONEY IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT!!!!  It doesn't matter what the amount is.  Remember you are planting seeds, GOD provides the increase.

Marital Finances - What's In Your Hand by Dejonna Campbell

Today God is asking the question "What's in your hand?"  Our response is very important because who does not want to answer God!  I believe that God knows that we have everything we have need of he only wants to hear our response.  Just as God spoke to Moses with this same question, He is challenging us (Exodus 4:1-20).  You can read the account and see that God was just waiting on an answer.  Our response will either be one of honesty and obedience or one that reflects our lack of faith and trust in God.  Moses knew he had a staff in his hand and to his surprise that was the very thing that would lead an entire generation of people out of bondange.  This stick I am sure seemed to be very insignificant when Moses and the children of Israel approached the Red Sea.  I truly believe that Moses had forgotten at this point that the stick was used to perform many miracles back in Egypt.  Ones that included turning the Nile, a body of clear water, into blood and turning that same stick into a serpent right at Pharaoh's feet.  We all know these accounts very well, however they cannot just be Bible stories but real accounts that would propel our faith to to the next level.  My challenge today is for us to use all that God has provided and gifted us with and allow those things to bring us deliverance and healing.  Use what you have in your hand and watch him do miracles in a mighty way.  Your obedience to his word is first and foremost as you use and name those things that are in your HAND!

As a personal testimony my husband and I have always been committed tithers.  God gave us the revelation on tithing when we were first saved.  No natural situation or deveil in hell could ever take this revelation from us.  About seven years into our marriage our lives changed, children were added to our union and our finances were stretched to the maximum.  We sought God for wisdom in handling the finances God gave us.  After our commitment to tithe and pay bills, little was left if any.  We had to use what was in our hand and trust God.  This meant that we had to allow God to renew our minds (Romans 12:1).  No longer could we view our circumstances the same.  We had to apply the word to our situation, speaking only what God said about it and not the bill collectors.  This meant that we had to use every means that presented itself.  We made ourselves available not only to God in our finances but we availed ourselves to people and their needs.  My husband James is a licensed Journeyman that can just about fix anything and if he can't he will find someone who can.  James would do jobs for others that he did not declare beneath him such as cleaning carpets, home repairs or any auto work he could do such as oil and tire changes.  Now you would think that he would charge for those services, but God said "sow yourself for a season" and this is what he did, not taking anything for his labor.  The wisdom of God showed us how to save in our grocery shopping by using coupons and I still use them today.  Now I know some would say this is too time consuming, but this is a challenge to renew your mind.  God challenges us just to see the condition of our heart.  We miraculously saw God turn things around through pay raises and unexpected checks from sources owed to us.  These are just a few avenues that God used.  Attitude is everything!  We must always keep ourselves in an attitude of expenctancy and gratfulness toward God.  God is forever limitless in is ability to bless.  So your gifts, talents and abilities may not be mine or my husband's but you do have something in your hand.  Use it....whatever it may be to the glory of God.