“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
I have always loved this verse of scripture. To me it has always been such a comforting thought that the God who made me has a plan for my life. However, not just a plan, but a plan for good, a plan filled with hope and purpose.
When these words were originally written, they were written to a group of people in absolute poverty, hopelessness, and actual captivity. They had been forcibly taken into slavery to a place called Babylon. I can barely imagine the pain and anguish of being separated from everyone I love, living in poverty with nothing, and completely hopeless of any kind of restoration. Truly they were destitute and yet God was promising them hope.
Do you feel like this? Do you feel like you are living in a land of slavery when it comes to your finances? Do you feel like lack of resources and debt is constantly separating you from the people you love, or even what you would love to do? Are you hopeless of ever getting out of the bondage of debt?
Just as God had a plan of deliverance for the slaves in Babylon, God has a plan for your life. He is so much bigger than the mountain of finances, in fact, to Him it is just a pebble. His heart is for you to be free, and I truly believe that He is singing a song of deliverance over you. For today, the steps towards that freedom just may be as simple as the binder or filing tub that is now hopefully sitting in your home. It is not a mistake that you are reading this blog today. God is truly working everything for your good. His heart is for you, and there is a path to freedom. Now lets take the next step…
OK, open your package of dividers, and get out the labels. If you are setting up to file, the steps are the same, it will just look a little different. Now I want you to make labels for every kind of bill that you have. This is going to serve two purposes. First, you will easily be able to find any bill, which will be extremely helpful when we start talking about how to get estimates of your bills. Secondly, it is also going to help to identify some of the categories when we set about making your actual budget. So here are a few categories to consider. Obviously you will need to adjust the categories to fit your particular situation:
Mortgage/Rent, Utilities, Phone/Cable/Internet, Banking, Savings, Insurance, Credit cards (have a separate divider for each), School Loans, Automobile, Business Costs (if you have a home business with extensive paperwork, you may need a filing cabinet – ours doesn’t, so this works for us), Kids activities, Taxes, Medical, and whatever other categories that are specific to your family.
If you bought enough dividers/filing folders then definitely separate out the different utilities, phone/cable/Internet, and anything else that is combined. The more specific the label, the easier it will be to find. However, if you don’t have enough and want to combine into categories, just make sure to divide the bills within those categories. For instance, keep all of your water bills together even if there is not a divider separating it from your gas bill and it is all under utilities.
So that is the step in the plan today. It is not a difficult one, but each step is so important to getting anywhere in the journey. And just remember today, that as you move towards freedom in your finances, you are not alone in the journey. God is right there with you. He has been all along, and He truly does have a wonderful plan for you… a plan for your good, a plan full of hope, a plan for your freedom.