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SeedTime Money (Christian Personal Finance)

We just checked off the biggest goal in our life…

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I’d prefer to not share this publicly.

You’ll understand why in a minute.

But I find myself compelled to share it for two reasons:

  1. I want to brag on God and remind you that He is still doing miracles.
  2. I want to share the biggest practical step that helped us get there. 

God’s dreams often hurt

It can be really painful when God puts a dream and a desire in your heart that appears to be impossible to reach. It can almost seem like a cruel joke.

This is how we felt in 2004 when Linda and I were dating.

We dreamed of being able to fund God’s Kingdom in a significant way.

In our minds there was this huge gaping disconnect between wanting to give stuff away like Oprah and our tiny paychecks, mountain of debt, and poor career planning we had made.

Many days that dream in my heart was overshadowed by the dead-end, low-paying job I was trapped in. And the fact that we were barely able to pay our bills, let alone give much at all.

But yet, in the midst of that, I remember telling my Pastor about a goal that I had. That I wanted to give away a million dollars.

I think he knew me well enough to know how big of a long-shot this was.

But that’s the thing about God. It seems He gets so much pleasure using those who no one would ever suspect.

All throughout the Bible we see this pattern. His strength is perfected in our weaknesses. It is better that way because He gets the glory.

With all that, we are humbled and honored to be able to say that we just recently reached that goal of giving away a million.

Like I mentioned before, this isn’t the kind of thing that I enjoy writing about. But it is critical that you understand our heart behind sharing this.

It isn’t to boast or say look at what we did. We know where our help comes from. Or even more appropriately Proverbs 21:31:

“The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.”

Yes, we are the horse in this analogy. Just sitting around eating grass in the field and then going where the rider leads us. And not buck Him off. 😉

Why I am sharing this with you

There are two important reasons I feel compelled to share this with you.

1. To celebrate and give God the glory for the miracle He has done.

I remember only putting $5 in the gas tank because that was all I had until payday. I remember fasting meals because our grocery budget was so tight. I remember imagining giving away a million dollars and it being no more impossible to my natural mind than becoming president of the U.S.A.

“Sure it’s possible, and God might do it for someone else, but not me” I thought. And yet here we are.

So, I just want to be your friend nudging you that yes, He can do far above and beyond all you can ask or even imagine (Eph 3:20).

2. To give you the most important, practical piece of advice that made it possible.

The fact is that God wants to do the supernatural in our financial lives, but are we doing the natural things to allow the supernatural to flow unhindered?

Are we doing our part, or just expecting Him to do it all?

I love this quote by J.G. Holland, “God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.”

And I heard Pastor Chris Durso gives some insightful commentary on an easily overlooked few words of scripture in 1 Kings 18:46 NLT:

“Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.”

Notice how Elijah took a natural step of tying up his cloak so the supernatural God was going to do wouldn’t be hindered.

If God gave him supernatural speed, but he was tripping on his cloak the whole way there, he probably wouldn’t have outrun the chariot.

What are the natural things that you need to be doing if you want to see a miracle?

What we did right

If I look back over the last 15 years as we paid off over $200k in debt and reached this giving goal and try to identify the most critical natural step that we took to facilitate God doing the supernatural, it is this:

Having a simple money management method in place.

For some this is a spending plan, for some a budget, whatever you call it, it’s some sort of system to ensure that we were in control of our money.

  • Something complicated wouldn’t work for us.
  • It had to be so easy that Linda could stick with it.
  • Most importantly, it had to actually hold us accountable even if we were feeling lazy.

For us the only thing that checked all the boxes was the Real Money Method.

It ensured that we told money where to go each month instead of wondering where it went.

Without it God could have given us supernatural speed like Elijah, but we would have gotten tripped up. That one simple natural step was our biggest contribution to the miracle that God has done in our lives.

Is it time for a change?

If you don’t have a working budget, spending plan, or method that is working for you (that leaves you in complete control of your money and spending), then it is time for a change.

I don’t care what approach you use, I just want to see you get results.

Our prayer is that God would do the supernatural in your financial life. That all your needs would be met (Phil 4:19) and that you would have an abundance for every good work (2 Cor 9:8).

And if we can help serve you with our course, it is 20% off (for the next couple weeks) and we’d be honored to come along side you.

Cheering you on!

bob

P.S. I suspect I am going to get a lot of questions about what happened in the middle that greatly accelerated our speed towards this goal.

There were a few factors:

  1. We paid off our debt. The red line below is a rough illustration of our debt payoff over those years. And once we were 100% debt-free, we suddenly had a lot more income that we could give. The method we teach was what helped us amplify that debt payoff as well as keep us accountable to not spend all that extra cash on stupid stuff (which we both are very capable of doing).
  1. I got laid off and started my business. My business was going well and provided more income than my old corporate job did.
  2. We began giving our age as a percentage of our income. (read more about that here) We made a massive jump in our giving percentage up to 31% at the time and has been steadily increasing each year since.
  3. God was doing what God does. The previous 3 factors all contributed to the exponential speed towards our goal. We did our part, and God showed up and did His. Lots of miracles tied up in there that made this whole thing possible. To Him be the glory.

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Comments

  1. Congratulations and “job well done”.
    The two of you are so inspirational.
    The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel (so that he may be able to steer his course rightly). Proverbs 1:5
    Thank you for sharing your exceptional journey.
    Linda G

  2. I’m so excited for you and Linda🙌🙌🙌. I want to get there too. Yes, God’s dreams do hurt. The future he’s giving me seems to be way different than I was expecting but I’m staying focused on Him so I don’t fail my Father! I am struggling with the pain and struggling ahead for the ending He has purposed for my life . thanks for sharing!!!❤

    • ES, hang in there. THere is no doubt has some cool stuff that He is going to do through you and your life! Romans 8:28

  3. Just the motivation I needed to keeping weathering through the storm. Gotta keep moving no matter what.

  4. I would like to thank you Bob for his commitment to share this very tough topic of financial management and giving that has made many struggling to do it without consistency in doing it has your own habit. Please I would like to encourage Bob to continue sharing helpful topics with other in the same spirit I have big challenge my self hope God himself will come for interaction on this thank you

  5. Wow, big congratulations to you and Linda, Bob! All praises and glory to our Great God indeed!🙏

    You know, you just encouraged me today as am waiting for my own miracles to happen which I asked from the Lord and the same verse you shared in Ephesians 3:20 is what am holding on to as well. Am praying the Lord finally removes all the delays and hindrances and send them soon even this month, in Jesus’ name!

    Now the insight you gave from 1 Kings 18:46 really blew my mind away as I’ve been asking the Lord for divine wisdom and strength I need in my work nowadays; I have multiple project deadlines which take up too much time and mental strength it leaves me lacking sleep and tired most days. Reading your exhortation, I am encouraged the Lord can and will indeed grant me the needed strength & wisdom and will multiply whatever I give Him. You see, even if am experiencing work challenges nowadays, I want to honor Him in it; may He be pleased with me.

    Let’s keep on keeping on, Bob! Truly He will never leave nor forsake us and is faithful in all He says and do!

    Stay safe and God bless you more!

  6. Thank you for your public praise of God and His good graces. I have been disabled for 20+ years, no assets, nothing, but, God has placed in my heart a goal, a ministry to feed the poor. I have nothing, yet, I have found the money to get the corporate charter, fees, etc and IRS requirements. Now, waiting for God to open the gate. God makes the way, we must be prepared to follow His way.

  7. I love how God has shown up big in your finances! What a goal!
    From a practical stance, how in the world did you track this?

  8. The REAL MONEY METHOD is the real deal. For the last 12 years of my marriage there has been a great deal frustration, fighting and not looking forward to discussing finances with my wife. Since we chose to start the REAL MONEY METHOD in January of 2020 there has been none of the above. Now our sit downs to discuss finances last 45 minutes tops. Most times 30mins. For us, the transparency of the system has been a huge deal changer for the better. Now we have hope. Now for the first time in our 12 yr marriage we have a firm financial foundation under us. We have paid off a car. And by end of year will have 10mths of our expenses set aside as our foundation. We have also been able to buy a new home and keep our previous home as a our first rental property. And due to the REAL MONEY METHOD, we have a separate account set up for our rental property. By next week there will be 6mths of mortgage payments in the rental account as a foundation for that property.

    I would encourage any couple that desires to be on the same page financially, to pay attention to the Bob’s wisdom and use the REAL MONEY METHOD to THRIVE not just financial, but in all areas of your life. GOD will bless you in the midst of stewarding the resources HE brings to your life well. The REAL MONEY METHOD enables you to honor and glorify GOD like never before.

  9. Now the insight you gave from 1 Kings 18:46 really blew my mind away as I’ve been asking the Lord for divine wisdom and strength I need in my work nowadays; I have multiple project deadlines which take up too much time and mental strength it leaves me lacking sleep and tired most days. Reading your exhortation, I am encouraged the Lord can and will indeed grant me the needed strength & wisdom and will multiply whatever I give Him. You see, even if am experiencing work challenges nowadays, I want to honor Him in it; may He be pleased with me.

  10. Wow, I don’t anyone who would give away a million–if they would ever make that much. Am wondering whether a more effective method would be to put the million into an index tracker and give away the returns but I’m guessing you are already invested

  12. Appreciating the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you present. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed information. Excellent read!

  15. Bob,
    Congratulations on hitting your goal – I think it’s so inspiring to see people like yourself set goals and actually accomplish them, let alone blog about them.

    You made an excellent point when you said that paying off your debt helped kick start your journey to accomplishing your goal. Debt can saddle so many people and really hurt their end goal.

    Keep it up!

    Fiona