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We all have our reasons why not to give. The common barriers to generosity are pride, greed, debt, stinginess, or busyness. Pride because sometimes we believe that we’ve worked hard for everything we own therefore it is ours and ours alone. We blame the poor for their situation and we judge them as lazy or taking advantage of us when they ask for help. Greed because whether we admit it or not, we always want more and seem to not get enough. Because of this lack of contentment, we are more inclined to take than to give. Debt because how can you give freely if you are a slave to your lenders. Financial debt has a way of choking out generosity because our additional resources are going towards monthly payments and high interest rates! Stinginess because we always calculate the possible returns for each amount that we give. The motivation is to get something by giving. And if we do give, we want to make sure that no one gets more than they should. We ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ first before we give. Busyness because we don’t have time to help and think of what we can do…

You know that having savings has a lot of benefits but developing a habit for doing is easier said than done especially when you live from one pay cheque to the next. Moreover, there are things you want to buy or do which could require a huge amount of money. This could be a new car, a holiday, or even your own wedding day. While you can always borrow money to pay for these things, it often comes with interest. The best way is to avoid going into a financial hole, is to save. Being able to pay in cash will always give the best deal. According to popular studies, it takes about 21 days to form a habit. Here are seven steps that can help you develop the habit of saving. How To Develop The Habit of Saving 1. Write your goal. Write the exact amount you’re aiming to save and what it is for. This could range from an emergency fund, or college education, or simply a new pair of shoes. Choose only one goal and be specific. Don’t overwhelm yourself by listing too many goals all at once. It’s easier to create a new habit by starting…

What makes you truly happy? Is it having a lot of money? Good health? Lots of friends? Beauty and good figure? Power and success? You probably have heard someone say, "Oh, if I could only have a million dollars, I would be the happiest person in the world!", or “if only I have this or that, I can be satisfied.” What does it mean to be happy? People throughout history have struggled to find the answer. A dictionary definition of happiness is “a state of well-being and contentment; a pleasurable or satisfying experience.” A definition of the joy, is “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune.” Depending on the translation, the words happy and happiness appear about 30 times in the Bible, while joy and rejoice appear over 300 times. Obviously, we can’t live without money. We have to have money to buy food, pay our mortgage, and monthly bills but believing that money is the only way to happiness is wrong. Money lets you purchase things which can excite you. When you find something at a store, you buy it and it brings happiness. Unfortunately, the feeling lasts only for a few days or maybe a few…

God never intended for us to live in bondage. He doesn’t want us to be enslaved to credit card companies and lenders. Proverbs 22:7 says, “the borrower is slave to the lender”. Unfortunately, many people are financially enslaved because of their own doing. Although it’s very possible to get in debt overnight, yours could be the result of a number of bad financial decisions or wrong spending habits. If you’re drowning in debt and wondering how you will be able to pay them off, keep your hopes up. Know that there are steps you can do to get free of debt. There is no shortcut though so you will need to be patient and go to God’s Word for wisdom. As the famous financial expert Dave Ramsey said, “You can wander into debt, but you can’t wander out.” Here are five practical things you need to do right away to get on the right track financially. 1. Write down your cashflow You can’t build a house without a plan. Recording your cashflow will help you know where you are at in terms of your actual financial situation. This may be pretty simple yet a lot of people don’t know how…

To give you an illustration of eternity, imagine a rope that is so long that it can circle around the world a thousand times. This rope sort of goes on forever. And then this time, imagine this rope having a tip that is a few inches long. This is a simple illustration on how our time here on earth is compared to eternity. We will only live a few short years and pass away, and then spend our existence throughout eternity somewhere else. It’s really not worth comparing. Unfortunately, a lot of people focus on the tip of the rope. They see the life they have in this world as their permanent place instead of just a temporary trip. They tend to live only in the now without any regard of their life in the future. In the Bible, there are a number of stories that teach us that we need to look at our life in light of eternity. The Deception of Wealth The Parable of the Rich Fool is a parable of Jesus which appears in Luke 12:13-21. It reflects the foolishness of attaching too much importance to wealth. How we spend our time and money is determined…