AVAD 35
Month: August 2020
FINANCIAL BLESSING REQUIRES CAREFUL PLANNING
Monday, 31st August 2020
Proverbs 21:5 – Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.
If you want to be financially strong, you need to start writing down what you spend until you know where it’s all going. This is the principle of accounting. You’ve got to keep track of your finances!
Proverbs 21:5a says, “Plan carefully and you will have plenty” (GNT). If you don’t have enough, you’re not planning carefully. You don’t have anybody to blame but yourself.
You may say, “But I had this emergency!” Everybody has emergencies or unexpected expenses. The difference between the people who make it through and those who don’t is how they planned for those emergencies. If you don’t expect them, of course you’re going to be devastated by them.
Have you ever made it to the end of the month and wondered, “Where did all my money go?” Ignorance of your financial condition plus easy credit equals disaster. People say “Money talks.” It does not. It just walks away quietly, and it doesn’t tell you where it’s going. So you have to keep good records so you know where your money is going.
Here are four things you need to keep good records of: what you own, what you owe, what you earn, and where it’s going. There are several ways to budget, and you need to figure out which one is best for you. Do whatever it takes to get on track and understand your money so that it works for you and not against you.
Proverbs 23:5 says, “Your money can be gone in a flash, as if it had grown wings and flown away like an eagle”. That’s a pretty descriptive picture. If you don’t know where your money is going, it’s just going to fly away like an eagle.
REFLECTION
– What steps do you need to take today to be able to better track and allocate your money?
– How do you want God to bless you financially? How are you being faithful to Him with your finances?
SOW GENEROUSLY TO REAP GENEROUSLY
Friday, 28th August 2020
2 Corinthians 9:6 – Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
If a farmer plants beans, he’s going to get beans and not watermelon. He doesn’t doubt it. He doesn’t question it. Because whatever you plant is what you’re going to get back.
This is the law of reproduction, and it applies to every single area of your life — especially in your finances.
This can work either positively or negatively in your life. If you’re planting seeds of kindness, people are going to be kind to you. If you forgive others, they are going to be forgiving of you. If you’re generous, people are going to be generous with you.
But if you are angry all the time, people are going to respond in anger. If you cheat other people, people are going to cheat you. If you gossip about other people, guess what? People are going to gossip about you.
The law of reproduction says you reap what you sow, but the principle of multiplication says you will also always reap more than you sow.
When you put one kernel of corn in the ground, you don’t get one kernel of corn back. You get a cornstalk with multiple ears on it and hundreds of kernels on each of those ears. This is the exponential power that God has established the universe to handle. You always get more out of it than you put into it.
That’s why I never, ever attack my attackers. Why? I don’t want to get caught in the chain. No matter what anybody says to me, I don’t want to say anything bad back to them because if I do, I’m going to reap more than I sowed. What I choose to do is the exact opposite. I want to bless them. I want to pray for them. Why? Because that’s what I want to receive, and I always reap more than I sow.
Proverbs 11:24 says, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”
REFLECTION
– How have you ever seen the principle of multiplication active in your life?
– How are you sowing so that you can receive what you expect to reap?
– What do you need to change about your finances so that he can increase your influence and giving?
AT THE RIGHT TIME YOU’LL REAP YOUR HARVEST
Thursday, 27th August 2020
Galatians 6:9 – Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Between the then and the now — or the now and the what’s coming next — there is always a delay. When you make a deposit or an investment or a plan, it doesn’t instantly come to fruition.
Fruit ripens slowly. Would you rather eat a farm-ripened tomato or one that has been picked green and then gassed to turn it red? There’s no comparison between a farm-ripened tomato, which was allowed to grow slowly, and a tomato that was picked prematurely. If you pick too soon, you miss the flavor.
You always reap in a different season than you sow. And by the way, not all fruit ripens at the same time, some take longer. When you plant, you’re going to have to wait to reap in a different season.
But while you’re waiting, God is working. When you’re waiting for the fulfillment of the efforts or money or energy that you’ve put into something, you may think nothing’s happening, but you’re wing.
While that seed is hidden in the ground, it is slowly germinating. And when that seed bursts with God’s blessing on it, it will continue growing and growing. One day a little shoot will stick up out of the ground, and then you will see that it’s working.
But until then, you need to trust that God is working — even when you can’t see the fruit of your labor.
Plants take time to grow. No farmer goes out, plants the seed in the ground, comes back an hour later, digs it up, and expects it to have grown. You’ve just got to let it be. Leave it covered, and let God grow it in His time.
Galatians 6:9 says, “Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up”.
REFLECTION
– What have you been waiting on God to bring to fruition in your life?
– How have you grown spiritually as a result of having to wait for that harvest? What has God taught you as you’ve been waiting on him?
– Why do you think God makes us wait to reap what we sow?
JUST PLANT A SEED
Wednesday, 26th August 2020
John 12:24 – Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
What does a farmer do when he’s got a field? He goes out and plants some seed, because nothing will happen until he plants the seed. He can pray all he wants, but it’s not going to produce a crop. He’s got to plant some seed.
Maybe you’re waiting on God for that job, for a spouse, etc. God says, “You think you’re waiting on me? I’m waiting on you! I’m waiting for you to plant a seed.”
Everything in life starts as a seed: a relationship, a marriage, a business, a church, etc. And nothing happens until the seed is planted.
Why does God require us to plant a seed? Because planting is an act of faith. You take what you’ve got, and you give it away. That takes an act of faith! And it brings glory to God.
Jesus used this principle to explain why He came to Earth to die. In John 12:24 Jesus said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds”. Jesus was saying, “People will be saved and go to Heaven because of my death and Resurrection. I’m going to plant a seed, and the seed is going to be my life.”
Here’s the principle of sowing and reaping: Whenever you have a need, you plant a seed. Whatever it is you need — more time, more love, more money, more wisdom, etc — just plant a seed. If you need more time, give more time to others. If you need more money, give it away to someone in need. If you need more wisdom, share your wisdom with others. Give yourself away!
It may not make sense to you to give away something that you need more of, but that is exactly the kind of attitude that God wants to bless and that will produce fruit in your life. When you have a need, just plant a seed!
REFLECTION
– What need have you been waiting on God to provide?
– What do you think God might be waiting on you to do about that need? What seed can you plant today?
inspired Grisele 
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