Planning Your Money... Your future

Thinking about this subject, I am reminded of a latin maxim - Sovitoambulando.. Meaning problems get solved as you move on in life... Just keep moving.. Don't be stagnant.

This is true..things get done anyway. It might take time. But is this really true about money and creating the future we want? Money is a wild beast and has to be tamed. We require wisdom to tame money and make it work for us. We all desire good life, good future and to live behind godly inheritance. We need to work at it from now.

Solomon said in Eccl.7:12 For wisdom is a defense even as money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of him who has it. Money and wisdom are placed on the same pedestal.. They are both important. We need them to lead a good and godly life. But wisdom will help you manage money... keep it under control.

My son asked at one of our P3 meetings...if God promises to supply all our needs and says we should always ask for our daily bread.. Why plan and put away money? Very good question. While trying to answer it I remembered what Solomon said in Prov.6:6-8 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!-- Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest... The ant prepares for the future Now.

Wisdom is the principal thing. We do not know what the future holds.. But we know the one who holds the future.. Jesus Christ. He knows the end from the beginning.. So he instructs us and guides us through life. Yet He tells us to plan..
As some of you may know, I have been off paid employment for one year and 2 months.. I have a wife and 4 children..14, 12, 10 $ 8. We have continued to live a happy life.. though supplies are running out quite fast.. but 12months and being happy is God. I think its because of some godly decisions we made while I was earning regular income. But I didn't just decide to save and live a prudent life.. Life taught me.

Let me share one personal experience. As I was growing up (about 20 yrs ago), I would earn my salary and just leave it in my wallet and within 5-8 days the money was all gone. One particular month, I got my salary on the 26th of the month and by the 3rd of the new month, I was completely broke and I asked an older friend to bail me out. He gave me a look I will never forget. Then he asked me a couple of questions that made me see how stupid I have been. First he asked .. Do you still work at Guinness? I said yes. Is Guinness bankrupt? I said NO. Did Guinness pay you for last month? I said YES. Finally he asked.. What is today's date? I knew where he was going. I took off and swore to myself it will never happen again. I learnt a good lesson from that and indeed it never happened again.

There will be times and seasons. We have to remember that God made them both. Some are predictable while others are not. We want our children to go to good, preferably Ivy League Universities. We want to own our own homes.
We want to go on holidays. We want to pass on inheritance to our children like the Bible says. Then there will be times of trouble we did not bargain for. They will come. We don't know when but they will come.

So we need to prepare and always be ready. Solomon reminds us in Prov. 21:31 The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance and victory are of the Lord. The Lord who knows and holds tomorrow says we should prepare for life, we better do.

Preparation does not guarantee success nor does it mean that we no longer need God to do the things only He can...it just means we are properly positioned for God's blessings. He simply commands us to be wise, to prepare. Though money is a defence just as wisdom is, wisdom enables us to carefully plan our finances. Like an ant, we must prepare for the future...The dreams we have for ourselves, our family, our community etc.

Planning is of God.

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