Ralph: We've journeyed together for almost 30 incredible episodes in this
series, and we've worked together building powerful financial habits
and finding contentment and really anchoring our confidence in Christ.
But now you might be saying, Ralph, what happens now that the series is ending?
Is financial peace a destination you just reach?
Or can it truly be a lifelong journey of growth and faithfulness?
Stick with me today 'cause we're gonna embrace the path forward together.
Hey there, and welcome back to your daily, financially Confident Christian.
I'm Ralph and it is great to be here again with you today as we talk about
the things of faith, and we answer that big question, how can I become
a financially confident Christian?
That's our goal.
Today is a really special day as we begin to wrap up this series of dealing
with the stress of money worries.
And over the past 30 days, we've walked through major transformation.
We've transformed our mindsets, we've built practical habits, and
we've integrated faith into every one of those financial decisions.
And if you've been with me the whole time, I just wanna say thank you and
think about how much you've learned.
And if you miss some of 'em, you can always go back and check 'em out.
We've explored big topics like challenging consumerism and cultivating gratitude.
We talked about defining values, trusting God, breaking that impulse, buying trap,
and making every dollar serve a mission.
And today we're gonna start to bring all those pieces together
and really embrace this ongoing journey of financial stewardship.
So let's ask this question today.
Am I truly embracing the lifelong journey of savvy and faithful stewardship?
That's really my focus and my goal today.
Am I truly embracing that lifelong journey of savvy and faithful stewardship?
And you're listening right now.
Maybe you feel this, you've made some incredible progress.
You're feeling more confident, you're feeling less stress.
You're starting to feel some of that peace.
Part of you says, you know what?
Crap, great, great, great.
30 days I'm done.
I wanna be done with this money work.
I just don't wanna worry about it anymore.
Maybe right now you're afraid that a setbacks gonna undo all your progress.
Man, I've been there.
And see, here's the struggle we're talking about.
The struggle is really seeing financial peace as a destination.
We can't do that.
We can't.
We can't always be looking at financial pieces of destination,
some that we've reach and then Hey, hey, destination's over.
We made it, the bus stops here and we stop.
' cause that's not how financial peace works.
'cause If you do that, you're going to find yourself in a place of complacency.
You're gonna win and then discouragement, and then quitting
after you lose sometimes.
'cause you're not gonna win all the time.
Maybe for you, like me, maybe you're burdened by perfection.
You just have this perfectionist mentality.
I've heard many people say that to me, Ralph, you're just such a perfectionist.
Maybe you're listening right now and you feel that same way
and you feel burdened by that.
And instead of embracing this ongoing relationship with money,
and more importantly, this ongoing relationship with God, now I'm done.
God, you've given me what I need.
I'm good.
The problem is that static mindset, that belief that it's just this
destination reach and I'm done.
It causes stress and that stress just blocks resilience and it
blocks the true growth that you have the capacity to get to.
Here's the thing I want you to understand.
My big takeaway for today, if you hear nothing else, I say, I got a lot to
say today, but if you hear nothing else I say today, I want you to hear this.
Financial stewardship isn't a program that you just check the boxes and complete.
I can't give you a course on, Hey, financial stewardship.
Here you go.
You've won.
Here's your diploma.
Go enjoy life.
It doesn't work that way.
Financial stewardship is a lifelong discipleship journey.
I talk about this on the show all the time.
It's a journey.
My weight loss right now is a journey.
My, my health, you know, decisions are a journey.
Financial stewards is the same thing.
It's a process of learning, learning new skills, learning to
adapt to some of those skills.
But it's a process.
It's a process of growing.
And when you first started this, you might say, I, Rob, I even thought
about, donating to charity or tithing.
Man, I'm, I'm up to 20% now.
That's growth.
And I hope at the end of this, at the end of this series, we're gonna
start another one, just a couple days.
But I hope you're growing this reliance on God.
'cause here's the thing you gotta understand, life brings new seasons
at, at 52, I'll be 53 in September, I've started to realize that life is a bunch
of seasons kind of strung together.
There's this season, there's that season, there's seasons of, I
remember when my kids were real young.
That was a season of, I'll call it early fatherhood.
Then there was a season of, of the terrible twos, and then as they grew older
and then a season of them going to school and playing sports and high school and
high school graduations, and the season of them finding my, my oldest, finding
his, his girlfriend and now wife and their seasons ahead with grandchildren,
we pray and all those type of things.
Life brings those seasons and it brings new opportunities, and you
really have to understand and embrace this journey because your journey,
that journey is a testimony to God's faithfulness in your life.
Let's look at the scripture book of Philippians chapter one, verse six.
This is a beautiful piece of scripture.
It really talks about that journey.
It says, he who began a good work and you will carry it on to completion.
Until the day of Christ Jesus, he who began a good work in you began.
That's a journey.
That's a start.
That's a first step.
We'll carry it on to completion until the day of Christ.
Just as we all pray for, if you're a Christian, listen to this show.
You're looking forward to that day when Christ returns.
That's what we, that's what we, that's what we prepare for.
Your finances work the same way.
God will complete his work in your finances, but it's a journey.
Look at the book of Proverbs, chapter four, verse 18.
It says this, The path of the righteous is like the morning sun shining ever
brighter till the full light of day.
See your faithfulness grows brighter over time, so you gotta
learn to embrace this journey.
Your ability to manage your finances is going to grow brighter over time.
So embrace the journey.
God is with you in every season.
So learn today.
If you do nothing else today, celebrate your progress.
You've done amazing things.
And maybe say, Rob, I'm just starting.
That's great.
You've made the first step.
You're starting.
Let's keep working together.
Let's keep learning and trust his process.
So now you're saying, okay, great, Ralph, that's what I wanna do.
I wanna be on that journey.
What can I do?
How do I step forward from here and, and live this faith-filled journey of
stewardship that you talk about, Ralph?
Well, here's the solution and this is the intentionality part of it.
You gotta intentionally commit to lifelong learning and gracious stewardship.
You've got to live with a mindset of continuous improvement.
A lot of people don't get that, and I don't know if we do a good
job of training our kids with it.
Hey, you graduated from high school, you're done.
Life doesn't work that way.
You're not done when you graduate from high school or you graduate
from college, or you have a wife and, and you have a family.
And life doesn't work that way.
Life needs to be a, a set of continuous improvements and you're gonna stumble.
So you also have to rely on that grace.
So I wanna give you your one action item for today.
Sure.
One thing, I just want you to celebrate the journey so far.
Yes, we're gonna start with a celebration today, and in my head, I'm hearing
cool and the gang singing celebration.
You don't want me to sing.
It's not good.
But I want you to take five or 10 minutes to really celebrate your progress.
Those things that, that you've accomplished.
Bigger than that, I want you to write one or two wins down from the last 30 days.
Write them down, put 'em on paper, and look at those and say, yes,
with God's grace I got here, that's gonna fuel your momentum.
The first thing I want you to do, the second thing I want you to do
is make that commitment right now.
Promise yourself to Almighty God as well to keep learning, commit
to that lifelong learning and that lifelong growth, and revisit those
key principles whenever you can.
And I'm gonna say at least quarterly you go back and re-listen to some
of the episodes we talked about, the different pieces of that puzzle.
I encourage you here now read a new finance book or,
or take a workshop annually.
I'm gonna encourage you to tune in here every day.
I bring you content every day, but embrace that commitment to lifelong
learning and that lifetime growth.
Another thing I really think will help you is what I'm gonna say
is establish a financial Sabbath, maybe monthly or quarterly.
Just sit down and have a time of review.
Reflect on your budget.
It's just real easy to get stuck in that, in that it would just
keep on that process going.
There is a need for a financial Sabbath to sort of reflect on where
you are, reflect on your budget.
Say, Hey, you know what?
I put this together three or four months ago.
Does it make sense still?
Am I still doing the things that that Ralph said I should do that
I feel, you know, compelled to do?
Am I doing that tracking?
Am I looking at things and comparing the two sides?
This, how about my giving?
Am I giving the way I should be giving?
Am I stretching that?
Am I, am I being a cheerful giver like I talked about a few days ago?
Look at your progress.
Am I making progress?
Am I continuing to learn new things or am I just stuck here?
And then I just want you to do one more thing.
Look at God's provision.
Just thank him for all that he's given you, because the truth
is he has given you so much.
Make that a habit.
And then to do all these things, I'm gonna encourage you to embrace grace and embrace
that forward motion because listen.
Perfection is not the goal.
I say this on the show routinely.
Some people say to me, Ralph, stop saying it, but it's true.
Perfection is not the goal.
Perfection will get in the way of progress.
You've got to expect that you're going to stumble.
'cause guess what?
You're gonna stumble.
I stumble.
But learn, adjust and then keep going because your journey is about
consistency and it's about faith.
He might be saying, Ralph, okay, that's great, but why does this even help?
Because it transforms your finances from task to discipleship.
See, I said this the other day about giving.
Giving is really worship.
Well, guess what?
financial stewardship.
That is worship.
'cause you're taking what God has given you.
You've taken the provision that God has given you and you're doing
what he wants you to do with them.
And that's just gonna build resilience.
It's gonna build resilience with grace, and it's gonna ensure that
long term you have growth and you have application what God is teaching you.
And the biggest thing it does is it anchors your journey in
God's presence and God's peace.
And hey, isn't that where we all want to be today?
I dunno about you, but I want to be in God's presence and
I want to be in God's peace.
Well, let's pray together.
Father God, we just thank you for beginning a good work in us.
Yes, we recognize this is just the beginning Lord.
This is just the start of a journey.
And Lord, we do confess our desire for quick fixes.
We live in a culture where we wanna have the answer and we wanna have it now.
We wanna put that behind us and be done with it.
But Lord, we know that's not how life works.
That's not the seasons that you promised in your Word, Lord.
And we just ask that you would help us embrace this lifelong
journey of stewardship.
Lord grant us endurance.
Lord, grant us wisdom and grant us the grace that we so desperately need.
And strengthen our habits, Lord, and guide our decisions.
And mostly anchor our peace in you and in you alone.
May our finances always reflect your goodness, and we ask this with
confidence in the name of Jesus, Amen.
I just wanna congratulate you on this last 29 days, almost 30 tomorrow.
We're gonna do a bit of a recap.
We got some listener questions.
I just wanna congratulate you on completing this journey.
You've made a huge start.
You've taken real steps towards financial transformation, but as I
said, this is just the beginning of a lifetime of faith-filled stewardship.
So I just wanna encourage you today, keep learning, keep applying, keep trusting.
I also wanna say this, it's been an honor to walk with you and we're gonna continue
that walk tomorrow, and if this series has blessed you, do me a big favor.
Share it with somebody else.
If it's blessed you, say, Hey, you know what?
I listened to this series from Ralph.
I listen to this show every day.
It's blessed me.
It will bless you too.
You can find all of our episodes and our resources@financiallyconfidentchristian.com,
and I've got a special gift for you.
I'd love to give you a copy of my book.
It's called Mastering Your Finances.
You can go to financially confident christian.com/master and you
can get a free copy of my book.
It's a brief read, but it will be impactful to your life.
Well, let's all go out there and be those financially confident
Christians on a mission, on a journey.
'cause you can do this.
I believe in you, and I just want you to believe in yourself.
Stay financially savvy.
God bless you and you have a great day today.