A Faithful Written Accounting

“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” I Corinthians 4:2

Yesterday, we found that a steward is faithful in his current expenses by writing them down … keeping a record of them. How would the master feel if he came and the steward had nothing to show for his accounting? The steward would have nothing to show for what had come in and what had gone out … or where it went or where it came from. That is not a very faithful accounting, my friend! We will need to do better than that.

Personal finances not only involve faithfulness, but they also involve discipline. We will be looking at that more later. It is amazing to see how our faithfulness in one area can also affect our faithfulness in another area. If we are not faithful in our personal finances, we will not be faithful in our churches finances.

If our employer has not learned how to give a faithful accounting in his personal finances, he will not be able to give a faithful accounting in his business finances, which will bring the ruin (closure) of his business. I have seen this over and over again. So, it is very important to master your faithfulness in this “small” area because it will have a profound effect on the other areas of your life as well.

I trust that you took time to write down every expense that you have into a monthly expense format. Today you will now add your monthly income to that same paper. These two together, your expenses matched up to your income, make up a budget.  A budget is not where you simply write down every month what you project your expenses to be. No, my friend, it is much more than that! It involves now matching up those expenses with your income. This is where the rubber meets the road!

So, how is it looking? Do you have more income than expenses? Or more expenses than income? If you follow the #debtfreecommunity at all, you will see the phrase “living paycheck to paycheck” quite often. What are they saying? Well, what they are really saying is that they are barely making enough income to pay for their expenses. Others “have more month than they do paycheck” aka they cannot even make it to the end of the month before they run out of money. Either scenario is not a pleasant place to be and brings with it a truckload of stress … take it from someone who knows! Well, do not despair!

Through following these biblical financial principles, you will make it through that endless tunnel of darkness! You will come out the other end living in the light of God’s blessings from your obedience.

Spiritual Principle #4: Some people disregard the importance of a zero balance budget … EVERY penny accounted for. One day we will be standing before a righteous and holy God and will be giving an accounting for EVERY thing that we have ever done or not done. Do you think that He will require any less faithfulness in our personal finances … of which He owns?