By Pat Hodges

Friends, it’s time we came out of the dark ages on the subject of finances. God wants to bless you, but it comes with the responsibility of being able to handle your finances, exercising responsibility with purchases in the store, not buying everything your eyes want, not abusing credit and being disciplined to live on a budget.

I hear it all the time and you have too and maybe you’ve even said it multiple times, “If I only had more money”. I’ve even said it in the past. In most cases having more money is not the issue. The real issue is how we handle the money we do have? How we handle $100 is how we will handle $1000. If we’re irresponsible with $100, we’ll be irresponsible with $1000. If we’re responsible with the $100 we’ll be responsible with the $1000.

Analyze your money habits

Often we’ve heard people say, “If I had a million dollars I’d do this or that with it, I’d give to this charity or that ministry”. The truth is, if we aren’t doing it now, we very likely wouldn’t do it if we did have a financial windfall. If we aren’t investing now the chances are slim to none that we would invest later. People dream all the time of winning the lottery, but if we have a poverty mentality now, we will have a poverty mentality even if we did win the lottery or suddenly came into money through an inheritance. Bad money habits and a poverty mentality won’t just fix themselves and they certainly aren’t fixed with more money. Neither will we wake up one day to suddenly realize that they have magically vanished.

Here’s the shocker . . . God doesn’t trust everybody!

For those of you who say, “Aww . . . money isn’t important” (I used to say it myself), I have a question. If it isn’t important, then why are you praying for it all the time (as I did)? Our attitude towards finances will dictate how much or how little He trusts us in the area of financial blessing and our attitude always dictates our financial habits.

Take the time to educate your self in the area of money

One of the leading causes of ongoing financial hardship is the lack of understanding when it comes to money. How can we expect to successfully manage what we do not understand? Financial literacy is a huge deficit in this country. They sure don’t teach it in grade school nor in most colleges or universities. Therefore it’s up to the individual to seek out those who do teach in the realm of finance and they are out there, but you do have to hunt them down. Dave Ramsey is an excellent resource in this area. He not only has published a number of excellent practical books, but can be heard on radio through his regular radio broadcast.

Remember “Your financial attitude dictates your financial altitude.”