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What does the Bible say about managing your Finances ?

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Defining Stewardship:  the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially:  the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care – Merriam-Webster

The Bible on Stewardship: Luke 16:10-13 

10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

We are stewards of what God has entrusted to us and good stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to our care.

To be a good Steward means you need to be a good manager.

What is the simplest management process?

Plan - Do – Review

Let’s say I was the project manager responsible for building your dream home, in other words I had stewardship of what you had entrusted to me (the building of your dream home according to your plans and the money you had committed).

Now let’s say as the project manager I took updates from my workers daily on things they said were done or needed but I only went to look at the house under construction at the end of each month. What do you think I would find then? Maybe jobs done wrong, corners cut, wrong material used. Wouldn’t you ask me why I was not following up on the work as needed? I mean if there is activity on the house each week I should at least follow up each week right? Wouldn’t that make sense? I think you would agree that it makes perfect sense, because we know that management requires not only good plans but following up on how those plans are carried out.

So let’s apply this to our finances. If we are to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us then we should be good managers and if we are good managers we should have good plans that we follow up on as needed, if there is activity every week then we should follow up every week to make sure we are following our plans. Most people spend money every week they buy groceries, by gas for their cars, buy coffee or lunch and actually pay some bills so following up on your plan every week is appropriate and will keep you on track much better than waiting to the end of the month only to react to where the money was actually spent.

But this might take more time that you want to spend right? I mean you have your budget one place, your debt plans somewhere else, your goals are really wishes and you may not even have thought of having a retirement plan.

If all of these were integrated and placed at you finger tips how much time will you need to spend per week? Maybe 5 to 10 minutes…that’s right being a manager and having the right tools means you stay on top of your finances in minutes a week, and what happens at the end of the month? It is just another week you may spend a couple minutes more but that is it. No surprises.

Reality Check: If you saw the blog "What does the Bible Say about Budgeting" then you know the reality is over 2/3 of Americans don't follow a budget so what kind of stewards are they? If you look at the "What does the Bible say about Debt" blog The average U.S. household owes $16,061 in credit card debt, up from 10% from $14,546 from 2006. Total household debt now hovers at $132,529. If you are a Christian it may be time to take a hard look in the mirror!