Attaching Faith to Financial Expenditures

By Steve Backlund

“Oh no, I have an unexpected financial expenditure!”

“Yikes, that was stupid to spend money on that!”

Today’s topic is very practical and will get down to where the rubber meets the road in our lives! Before I get into the message, I first want to highlight a foundational belief for this blog from my book, Fully Convinced:

“A bad decision made in faith has a greater likelihood of 

success than a good decision made in doubt.”

I am not talking about sinning in faith (haha), but there is power in attaching faith to what we decide to do. Romans 14:23 says, “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” Sin is an archery term that means “to miss the mark”. So whatever is not of faith misses the mark. Many of us are doing the right things, but they are not working because we are not attaching faith to what we’re doing (or what we’re not doing).

2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “But each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The principle here is that God loves a cheerful decider. The context in 2 Corinthians 9 is financial giving, but the truths from this verse are much broader than finances. Cheerfulness is one of the main evidences that we have attached faith to the decisions we have made or are making.

There are four ways we can do things (including financial expenditures):

1. We can decide out of duty and obligation - “I’m only doing this because I have to. I feel trapped into doing this.” 
2. We can decide in doubt - “I’m not sure I should be doing this…I’m not sure I should be spending this money…”
3. We can decide in passivity - “Oh well, I guess I’ll do this. I’m not expecting much, and I will wait to see what happens.”
4. We can decide attaching FAITH - “I am convinced this is what I am supposed to do! I have done my best to follow God’s voice, accept the input of my community, and study what the Bible says. I am now attaching faith that this is the right decision, and have high expectations for what God is going to do.”

Any time we attach faith to what we’re doing (a commitment, meeting, financial decision, responsibility, relationship, etc.), we get energy, cheerfulness, and power! 

For me, applying these principles into financial expenditures is one of the most challenging areas. Here are some reasons I have struggled: 

• Not applying principles from people like Dave Ramsey about having an emergency fund
• Being in seasons where it has seemed impossible to have an emergency fund
• Buying things impulsively that I later regretted
• Relying on credit instead of God
• Feeling guilty if I ever put something on a credit card because of teachings that say I should cut up my credit cards

Because of these things there have been long seasons where I have not attached faith to my financial situation or how I was spending money. And because of this, I was “missing the mark” in this key area of my life. 

In this blog I do not have room to explain what I am saying in depth, but I want to prompt you to consider what level of attaching faith you have concerning things you need to spend money on (especially unexpected things). Even if you have a spouse, or someone else that seems to drain the resources, you still can attach faith to what you are doing (and how you are thinking). 

My podcast goes into this in much more detail. I talking about:

• Why we are to believe for less of our possessions breaking down
• How our thinking about finances is the kindergarten to true spiritual riches
• How our response to our current financial situation is usually more important than the financial situation
• And more

We just had a great emphasis on money with Jim Baker's Wealth With God, and I believe this message will help get even stronger in our money mindsets.