Today on MoneyLife with Chuck Bentley
Monday, February 8, 2010
How to Accomplish Your Purpose in Life
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If you have never evaluated the purpose and direction of your life, you should. What do you want to be remembered for when you leave this world? What do you believe God created you to accomplish? What does He want you to do with your life? Some of you are young, some are older. All need to think about these questions. We shouldn’t work just to be out of debt and to prosper. We’re to be financially free to accomplish God’s purpose for our life. You need to discover that purpose and be able to share it with others. Our lives should be ordered around what God wants us to accomplish. Our finances should be ordered around fulfilling our purpose. If you’re not focused on your purpose, you’re like a hamster on a wheel. You keep it going but you never get anywhere. We're going to talk today about a plan to get your finances in order to accomplish your life purpose. Write down your life purpose. Put it into a sentence or two, no more than a paragraph. Your purpose is unique, no one can answer it for you. If you’re married, you can even do this as a couple. Your purpose is not just to raise a family and give your children a better life than you have. God is calling you to fulfill your purposes and model that for your children. The Purpose Driven Life was so successful because people know there is a greater reason for being here than just working everyday. Our work must be part of fulfilling the reason we exist, and we should be moving closer to that fulfillment each day. One you’ve written down your life purpose, you should convert it into life goals. You need to have short and long range goals that are part of fulfilling your purpose. I encourage you to set goals in these areas:
When you’ve written down your purpose and converted it into goals, pray and ask the Lord to allow you to fulfill the desires and dreams of your heart. If our life purpose and goals are part of what God desires for us, He will bring it about. God asked Solomon what he wanted. He wanted wisdom. God granted that. You can’t accomplish what God created you to do on Earth if you’re stuck in financial bondage. God can use even if you’re in financial bondage, but it’s better to be out of it. Finances can propel you toward fulfilling your life purpose. If you’re frustrated because you don’t know what to do to get out of financial bondage, get a Crown Money Map. The first step is to establish an emergency savings account and save $1,000. For most people, taking this step will break a lifestyle of spending more than you earn. You also need to have a spending plan that helps you spend money with a purpose. Your spending plan plan helps you direct money where you want it to go. Once you start living on less than you make, you’ll have a surplus. That’s how you’ll save $1,000. Solomon said you’re foolish if you spend everything you get and have nothing in reserve. Set up a reward for accomplishing this first step. You can celebrate without doing something expensive, share it with a friend. The second step is to begin a plan to get out of debt. The same habit you develop to save money is what you will use to pay down debt. You can’t pay off your debt if you’re continuing to accrue new debt. You can’t pay off your debt if you’re only paying the minimum each month. Some people consider their credit limit their savings but that’s not savings. Savings is having money in the bank. Your motivation for getting debt-free should come from fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. Look beyond the temporal reasons the world says you should work and look at what you’ll accomplish while you’re on Earth. You want your life to count for something greater than fulfilling your own personal needs. I want you to be free to accomplish that. Being in debt is stressful. No one likes to be shamed by a bill collector. No one likes the insecurity. Set up a plan to pay off your credit cards. Pay the highest interest cards off first. As you’re paying off the credit cards, increase your savings to one month’s living expenses. This may take six months or a year. Set up another celebration for accomplishing that milestone. Make it more fun than the first one since you’ve achieved a bigger goal. Once you’ve paid off the credit cards, continue the same process of living beneath your means and attack all your other consumer debt. Step three is paying off all your consumer debt. Consumer debt is auto loans, student loans, and home equity loans. Continue to save and increase your savings to three month’s living expenses. Then keep going until you increase it to six month’s living expenses. You can do it if you follow the process. Set a goal to get debt-free as soon as possible knowing that it will take time to achieve. When you accomplish this step, celebrate. Make the celebration a little bigger than the last one, maybe do something you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t do before because of your finances. At this point, you should start believing that your life purpose can be fulfilled. After you complete the first three steps, now you’re ready for step four. Save for major purchases. These are things you need that are more expensive. You want to buy them with cash instead of credit, so you accure no new debt. God says you will be able to save for major purchases with small, faithful steps. God will direct you out of financial bondage if you will stay motivated and focused on fulfilling your life purpose. *** Don't forget about the God Provides™ film tour coming to Atlanta Thursday, February 11 and Chattanooga, Thursday, February 18. I'll be teaching, too. These events are family friendly and free, so bring your children. We'll be showing Abraham and Isaac and the Widow and Oil films. You can register here. This is not a fundraising event and there's no charge to attend. I encourage you to see God as your provider during these difficult economic times. I hope you’ll make plans to be there if you live in those areas. If you do, please say hello and let me know you're a MoneyLife listener.
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Other Resources: |
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What do you want your life to count for?
Have you thought about that lately or are you too busy working and trying to pay your bills?