Pathway to Prosperity

Subject: Financial Freedom

Scripture “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 NIV).

Introduction:

The purpose of this program is to pave the way so we can express our love to others through the act of giving. It will help us to:

• Identify the needs around us.
• Trace a plan of action to help those in need.
• Understand our personal capacity for helping others.

Project Ideas

1. Meeting our neighbor’s needs:

We need to identify needs that people in our community have and work towards meeting those needs. For example:

• Is there anyone who needs food? If so, make a list of needed food items. Ask different women to bring those items on a chosen date. Place the food in a basket and present it to an individual or family. If there is more than one family, this can be done for a different family every month.
• In July fill up backpacks with school supplies and give them to families with children. Use the same strategy as with the previous one but with school supplies instead of food.
• If you have a shelter at your corps, ask the women to bring purses that are in good condition and fill them up with some new personal items such as: makeup products, lotions, deodorants, tissue. Once a month, hold a women’s meeting at the shelter and give the women the purses.
• Organize fundraising activities such as yard sales, bake sales, to raise funds for a specific need: to help a child to go to camp, to send needed supplies to the missionaries, or to buy toys for the corps nursery.

1. Financial Exercise: Making Our Personal Budget.

If as individuals the women don’t have the capacity to help others, the group will be limited. That is why we need to help the women work on their personal finances. After the meeting, some women will probably want/need to have more personal-private help. It that’s the case, you can set a time to work with each of them separately.

Preparation

Let the women know that this is on a volunteer basis, since some personal information may be exposed. For ideas on how to put together a budget visit the following websites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lHNMGoACdQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Eh8QLcB1UQ

Three months before the meeting, advise the women to keep track of the money they receive and the money they spend each month. Be aware that each person will have different sources of income and different types of expenses. You may give the women a simple chart as an example so that they have an idea on how to fill it out.

Day of the meeting

Those who brought their completed form and those using the sample can begin by analyzing the information contained in the form:

• Identify things that need attention: are their expenses are more than income; did they include interest payments on their credit cards; did they include donations to churches and others, is there an amount for entertainment.
• Brainstorm with the women about how to balance that budget: how can they reduce expenses or increase income.
• If we reduce expenses: where should we start? How much? What about credit cards?
• If we choose to increase income: by how much and from where?
• Reshape expenses: add savings (how much?), add donations (to whom/how much?).
• End with a balanced budget (Income = Expenses).

Expressing Our Love Through Giving

Paul sent a prayer of blessings upon the church of Philippi, because of the help they offered him on more than one occasion. People in the church were able to help him not only because they had the desire to do it, but they also had the means to serve him this way, and they did it in more than one occasion.

Having the means gives us freedom to express our love through the act of giving. It doesn’t matter how much we want to help; we cannot give what we don’t have. Galatians 5:13 presents us with the calling God has placed upon us and the purpose of that calling, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.”

Freedom is not meant to be an “after-death” or an “out-of-this-world” experience. Freedom is part of the gift package we receive when we believed in Christ, and it is meant to be enjoyed while we are still on this earth. It is a highway, a wide-open road, to serve others. Slavery is the opposite of freedom; therefore, no opportunity of serving.

When we apply these two terms, freedom, and slavery, to finance, we can talk about financial freedom (no debts) and financial slavery (debts).  We find ourselves on one of those two roads, serving one of those two masters (Matt. 6:24). If we allow ourselves to be under the dominion of debt, we are being held captive and don’t have the freedom to serve our Lord as our Master; instead, debt becomes our master. The Bible encourages us to pursue financial freedom: “the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Prov 22:7b, ESV. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” Rom 13:8a, ESV.

Our identity and value should come from Christ and not from material riches we possess. Many people are obsessed with accumulating “material things” at the expense of sacrificing peace, joy, and financial freedom; but to us, peace, joy, and freedom are a part of our riches, not the means to it.