Breaking Out of Financial Bondage: Principle of Budgeting

II. Principle of Budgeting

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” Proverbs 21:5 (NIV).

What is budgeting?

Budgeting is simply planned spending! It is telling your money where it should go rather than wondering where it went. How can you plan your spending? By having a real financial plan that includes both saving and spending.

Many people believe that if they earn more money they will be able to get out of debt…and stay out. But the truth is that the more they make the more they will spend—because their desires will overcome their reason.

According to Pastor Jorge Vega, “financial freedom is not determined by how much money you make” it is determined by how much you save. If you do not save you are a person who is lead by his or her yearnings. This is not how God wants us to live. We are to have self-control. We are to rule over our desires they are not to rule us.

It has been said that the more educated a person is the more time they spend shopping—and the less time they spend planning. They are impulsive, shop based on their emotions, and they more likely they are to respond to the cheap gimmicks of advertisers.

Proverbs 21:20 tells us, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” If we spend all that we have or we are not prudent in our spending we are foolish.

Proverbs 21:20 is God’s IQ test for his children. If you can’t manage your own finances how can God trust you with true riches? (Luke 16:11). If you are managing your finances by sinking deeper into credit card debt then you are enslaved—you are in financial bondage…because the borrower is the servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). Are you satisfied with being a servant or do you want to be free?

What can you do?

If you desire to get out of financial bondage start to:

1. Budget—plan your spending…shop with a list
2. Resist the temptation to spend—resist the word “sale”
3. Say no to advertisers—do not be lead by your flesh or your lustful (sinful) desires
4. Ask God to make you smart—to increase your financial IQ
5. Spend less and save more

Further readings

Articles inspired by the Breaking out of the Debt Zone Series by Jorge Vega, of Full Gospel Tabernacle, Far Rockaway, NY.