By Elder Pamela Porter

Day 20 — By Faith

EXPAND, A Devotional

by Elder Pamela Porter

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Back in January 2016, I heard the Lord tell me, “Deal with your finances.”

This was during the time when the church was fasting and praying, taking time to seek the Lord, and listening to what God wanted for us to do in that season. Pastor Owen had already declared 2016 as the year of Jubilee. Of course, that had to tie into my personal destiny as well. Why? Over the years, I’ve learned that the destiny of my life is intertwined with the destiny of the church. It’s amazing how things work together for the good, and how the church is such an integral part of your personal life.

For me, discussing finances has been a challenging thing to do, let alone address. But, things began to change and the knots in my stomach faded away. In February of 2016, we began Grow Workshops. One of the classes was based on Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace. Of course the light bulb went off in my head, and I knew this was confirmation about what God spoke to me. While taking the class, my husband and I decided that we were going to commit ourselves to getting out of debt. We were determined to be debt free.

We first decided to pay off my $18,000 student loan. How? By faith (Hebrews 11:1) we were going to get rid of this burden. At the time, we were paying double tithe and giving offerings. By God’s grace, He helped us. How? God gave us a plan, and we willingly obeyed.

“Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.”” Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

Every week, we’d complete our zero based budget and follow it as close as possible. We paid on our debt weekly and watched it go down!

There’s so much the Holy Spirit taught us during this time. For example, how to stay focused on the goal, meditating on God’s principles about money, how to be obedient in the little things concerning money, and how to believe what God said.

Eleven months later, we paid out the $18,000. Eleven months! God was truly faithful to us. We were feeling pretty good, but God wasn’t finished with us. My husband always quotes Proverbs 10:22, which says, “the blessing of the Lord, it makes rich, He adds no sorrow to it.”

For us, that sorrow was financial debt.

We had a $23,000 car loan. We decided to it pay off using the same principal: giving to God first, giving in special offerings, and just constantly giving…not just our finances, but our time, and strengths.

On November 30, 2017 we paid that loan off, and now we can look back at what God has done. It was ALL a work of the Holy Spirit and we were in perfect agreement with His plan!

Now, we are Debt Free!

A few keys I would like to leave you with are:

• Give God your BEST;
• Be thankful for what you have;
• Use what is in your hand;
• Give willingly because you want to, and because you love Him.

Points To Ponder:

Finally, I leave you with this question. It’s only something that you can answer:

What is God asking from you concerning your finances and giving?

What are some changes that you will commit to making in regards to your spending habits this year?

Scripture References: Hebrews 11:1 NKJV, Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV