When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get On Their Knees and Pray

I frequently run into friends who have participated in our Compass Bible Studies or workshops over the years and I like to find out how they are doing managing God’s money.  Thankfully, most are still in a good groove and some have even checked a few more boxes off their Compass map, which is always good to hear.  However, others will sheepishly confess that something happened along the way and they got off track.  I tell them that I understand because I know that Satan wants to stand in the way of every chance we have to do the right thing in God’s eyes.

Five years ago when I saw an announcement in our church bulletin about the Bible Study, I asked my husband if we could attend the informational meeting and he said, “Sure.”  My husband and I weren’t exactly on the same page about our finances and I wanted us to be more connected in this area of our marriage, so I was pretty excited at the affirmative response.

On the evening of the meeting, when we were within about a half-mile of the church, my husband asked, “What is this about again?”  I was crushed.  I was all revved up for this night and he obviously was not.  Nevertheless, we made our way into the church and proceeded to listen to all the redeeming qualities this Bible Study would bring out in our marriage, but after we left I was still feeling pretty dejected.   My husband wasn’t excited about a Bible study that would take two hours out of our week for nine weeks.

While it is common in many marriages for one person to take on more of the responsibility for the finances, each partner needs to be involved.  It’s not that I didn’t like taking care of our finances, but my husband works in the financial industry and I wanted to benefit from his insight.  He is also a great manager of teams of people so he has great communication skills, which has helped me as well.  Of course, when either or both spouses have been working all day, the last thing they want to do is sit down to another meeting. I felt that Satan had us in his grip when I couldn’t answer my husband’s objections, so I prayed about it.

It was only a day or so later when a friend of mine called to ask if we were interested in attending the Bible Study.  She and her husband had been asked to lead a group and our names were on her list of “interested parties.”  I gave her some reasons why we wouldn’t be able to come, but one by one she dismissed them all.  God had answered all of my prayers in a single phone call!

Five years later, Satan hasn’t left us alone because he didn’t manage to thwart my efforts at attending the Bible Study. When he loses one battle, he regroups and finds a new angle of attack. Managing our day-to-day finances and remaining a stay at home mom has continued to present many challenges.  In order to stay on track, we have to expect this and invoke God’s wisdom in every decision we make.

It has become second nature for many people to throw their hands in the air and incur debt or go running into the arms of our government for help when things get tight.  Jesus shed his blood for our sins so that we may have eternal life and, as Christians, that is the only bailout we truly require.

”For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” ~John 3:16