Reason #799

Aaron and I have talked about building a new house. You’re probably thinking, “Hold on, isn’t your house new?” It is. And so do we need a new house? Absolutely not. Do we want one? Yes. And although I love our house and have it done up just like I want it, I want Aaron and I to have a home that is fully, completely “ours.” A house that we both move into at the same time. A house that we picked out and designed together. And so we’ve been occasionally scanning real estate websites to see what’s available. Unfortunately, the houses in our price range are old and need a lot of work. This weekend, we decided we’d just check with a builder to get an estimate on how much it would cost to build a house from scratch. Well, needless to say, it looks like we’re going to be in our house for a little while longer. Of course, there could always be worse things.

 

Should you make a purchase just because you can afford it? That’s the question we are faced with. Having worked in the financial world, I know that if you have good credit, you can get approved for a lot of credit. Say you make $50,000, you may very well get approved for a home that costs $200,000 depending on your credit. I'm living proof of this. I was approved to refinance my house on my own making hardly anything, and my house payment was 50% of my monthly income. Sure, you can make your house payment, but can you pay the rest of your bills? Can you still enjoy a meal out once a week? Can you buy yourself the occasional pair of shoes or keep getting your hair colored? Credit doesn’t care if you can pay everyone else. It doesn’t care if you have to completely change your lifestyle and sacrifice so you can make ends meet. Credit just sees the dollar signs you are paying to own something that may very well be squeezing the life out of you. But you can afford it, kind of, and so credit says you can have it.

 

But what happens when you are living paycheck to paycheck? What happens when every single dollar goes to living expenses? You have no freedom to give. You have no freedom to spend outside of your strict budget. When money is tight, so are your options. And so to give a little hurts a lot. Yet, for some reason, we find that we’re willing to become indebted to our things and, in return, disobedient to God. Being a good steward means more than just paying your bills. And when you don’t live to meet your means, or above your means, yet chose to live below your means, you realize you have so much more freedom to give, to do, to spend, to breathe easier, and to enjoy.

 

If you never trust God with your finances, if you don’t honor Him with what He has given you, you miss out on so many blessings. I have to remind myself of this truth because I struggle with it. I struggle with wanting to spend because I know I can afford my selfish desires. I struggle with being intentional to stick to our budget because it requires work, effort, and a serious denial of self. I struggle not giving in each time I want to indulge because I know that God has given us paychecks for more reasons than just to feed our flesh. God gives us jobs so that we can give back, not store up.

 

Either way, it comes down to sacrifice. We will sacrifice our selfishness and our own desires or we will sacrifice blessings and obedience. No sacrifice is ever easy, but the blessings reaped when we lay our selfishness aside and honor God pale in comparison to anything we could buy on our own.

 

#799 - For the blessings reaped when we trust and honor God with our finances.

 

"How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you." - Psalm 31:19