Almost a year ago, my husband and I went through the program by Dave Ramsey – Financial Peace. When the intro video started, I thought to myself, “Is this a bit unrealistic for us?” We have had school loan payments for years and years that have hung over us like a dark cloud. We also had a credit card that always seemed to have a balance. Interest was piling on. Adding to that the burden of day-to-day living and unexpected costs that often arise, I thought we were too far gone.
After a year in the program, we’ve gained quite a bit of momentum. This post isn’t a push for Financial Peace – although I unashamedly endorse it. It’s proof that when you order your life with God’s plan (even when a positive outcome seems impossible or defies your understanding), you find blessing and freedom. Our financial situation had long been a burden, and although we are not yet fully debt free, we are experiencing peace for the first time in that area of our lives. How liberating! What’s even more special to me is to feel God’s pleasure as we discover this desire that He has for us to be unfettered by debt. I can’t tell you the countless times over this past year that God has given us a little nudge of encouragement by way of unexpected income that has further chipped away at our debt. He is so good.
This morning, I was sitting with my 9 year old daughter. She said, “Mom, if you had a check book, you could just write checks for money, right?” I responded, “Well, yes but only if there’s money in the bank.”
As I spoke those words to her, I thought, “Wow, as humans, we often do that in our lives. Don’t we? Write checks we can’t cash.”
Our culture boasts it’s ideology that eliminates God and His wonderful design and plan. We, as a culture, distort what is good and true, and we twist into “an acceptable shape” topics on which we disagree with God. We boast of our achievements. We live our lives as though we are the captain of our ship. We make claims regarding our abilities and our talents. We swell with pride and reject God in ways that suite our fancies. We write checks we can’t cash.
You see it in politics, entertainment, education, – the list goes on.
4 “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. 5 My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.” 6 We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend. 7 And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. Psalm 139: 4-7
Just the other day, I clicked on a video interview of Bill Nye the Science Guy. In it, he passionately rejected that God created all things and he expressed that it would be a disservice to our children to teach them this flawed belief.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!” Genesis 1:31
This is just one example of writing a check you can’t cash. Bill Nye was created by God and given intellect and a gift to explore science. In his giftedness for science and the study of empirical data, he turns away from God and says, “You don’t exist.” In the end, he will find that he has come up bankrupt. He’s written a check he can’t cash.
But here’s the beauty of it all…God loves Bill Nye and wants him to know Him.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
In this season of grace, God allows us the opportunity to come and submit to Him willingly and find peace and freedom. It will require us to hand in our checkbook.
In the beginning of today’s blog, I talked about aligning myself with God’s Word regarding our family’s finances. Mark and I humbled ourselves and admitted our need for God’s wisdom and plan to erase debt in our lives. He is blessing from His bountiful supply. He desires to do the same in every area of our lives as we submit to him – no longer writing checks we cannot cash.
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19
1 Chronicles 29 encourages us to realize the truth of the matter:
11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. 12 Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.
13 “O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! 14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! 15 We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
I admit, I have a heavy heart. As I look around, I see an overdrawn, bankrupt society. The worst is that I am guilty at times of writing checks I can’t cash.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him (Jesus) the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:6 parenthesis mine
But what a blessing, in each circumstance to finally surrender my burden and pride to the Lord, allowing Him to have His way – acknowledging that, without Him, I am bankrupt.
I used to think like my 9 year old when it comes to money – the thought that we can write as many checks as we want with no money in the bank. But we do it with our lives. And it’s not so funny. There will come a day when all the “checks we’ve written” will be weighed in the balance.
For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the LORD, every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.'” 12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:11-12
Let’s go to God and His bountiful provision. He lovingly provides. Today, I am soberly reminded not to write checks that I cannot cash.
Nana - So true, so wise….keep them coming, Tammy. Love you Mark, Tammy, Abby, Hudson and Sophie!