Financial Anxiety: Is God Your Backup Plan?

What if I told you your sleepless nights aren't about money?

They're not about your bank account?

The truth is, you can hustle harder, you can work longer, and you can stress more and still end up empty.

But today, I'm going to show you why financial confidence only comes when God becomes your builder, not your backup plan.

Hi there and welcome to Financially Confident Christian.

I'm Ralph, and I'm glad you chose to join for just a few minutes.

This is a bit of a bonus episode.

Today.

I got an email from a listener that I had to share because my heart really broke when I got this email.

Let me read it to you right now.

Said this, ralph, I'm exhausted.

I work two jobs.

I barely sleep, and no matter how much I try, my finances never seem to get ahead.

And then she ended with this question, and this was the heartbreaking part.

She said, why does it feel like I'm building and building, but nothing lasts?

When I got that email, I thought about all the people that listen to my show every day, and I thought about the struggles that I've had in my own life and those times when I was exhausted.

I remember working two, three jobs.

I wasn't sleeping.

No matter how much I put into it, how much I tried, it seemed like I could never get ahead.

There was always something that would pop up, an emergency expense, an unexpected bill, something with the young kids that we had at the time.

No matter what we did, no matter how hard we worked, nothing seemed to last.

And I was praying about this, and the Lord spoke to me and said, ralph, talk about Psalm 127.

I want to read that to you right now because honestly, this is the answer to the question.

And again, this is Psalm 127 says this.

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Think about it for a second.

What I hear this email listener asking is, ralph, I'm working hard.

I'm working two jobs.

I'm doing everything I know to do.

And this might seem like I'm being judgmental, but I don't mean to be judgmental.

But is the Lord at the center of that?

Is the Lord the foundation of that?

Because here's the truth that you need to hear today.

And I say this out of love.

I mean it every day when I do this show.

My goal is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence.

And I have to say this out of love today.

Hard work, extra Effort is not going to take you to a financial success that lasts.

Because here's the truth you got to hear.

Hard work without God's foundation, without God being at the center, at the core of that, is only going to lead to emptiness.

Nobody's saying, wait a second, Ralph, I'm working hard.

I'm working two jobs.

I'm doing everything I know to do to break free and to finally find financial peace.

But here's the honest to goodness truth.

And I want you to hear this because so many people don't get it.

We can't hustle our way to peace.

There's no amount of work we can do.

There's no saving, there's no scrimping.

There's nothing we can do if we don't put God at the center of it.

And I say that out of love today.

Let's go on to the second verse of Psalm 127.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.

For he gives to his beloved sleep.

Another great piece of scripture.

What is it saying here?

It's purely vain.

You rise up early.

Yes.

Maybe you're getting up early.

Maybe you're working that second job and you're working late.

You go late to rest.

And what is the scripture telling us?

You're just eating the bread of anxious toil.

Think about that for a second.

Anxious toil, that's piercing, isn't it?

But what does it end with?

It ends with the greatest promise you can ever imagine.

What does it say?

He gives to his beloved sleep.

And so what I want you to hear today is anxiety and sleepless nights are not God's plan for your life.

And this is a controversial thing to say.

And a lot of people say, ralph, you shouldn't go there.

But I'm going to go there.

God wants you to be financially at peace, but he wants you to trust him for that.

See, financial confidence means trusting God's provision.

It means reaching to him instead of striving to do it on your own.

I know a lot of people say, Ralph, but I'm a hard working guy.

I work for this.

And I say this almost once a week on my show.

You got to start with this basic belief.

It's not yours in the first place.

And that's a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.

They don't understand that.

They don't get it.

It's not yours in the first place.

God has provided that to you.

It's not your own striving.

Yes, you might be working hard.

You may be at toil.

You may be that anxious toil it talks about in the scripture.

But God provided that to you because what does it says he gives to his beloved?

Sleep well.

He gives you your provision as well.

Let's go on to verses three to five.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

And this is the big takeaway today.

This is the key point of what I really want to cover today in today's show.

Because so many people get hung up on the hustle, so many people get hung up on the bank account.

But the truth is, you got to start looking beyond that because what you're really building is a legacy.

And when you can stop hustling today, you'll come to this belief and it's truly this will set you free from the things that are bothering you.

True wealth.

If you really want to develop true wealth.

And that's what so many people are hustling, so many people are striving.

When people say to me, I just can't get ahead, what they're really saying to me is, ralph, I'm trying to build true wealth, but they're looking for the wrong things.

Because true wealth is not how much is in your bank account.

True wealth is not how much is in your 401k.

True wealth is not how many homes you own.

True wealth is not how many cars you have.

True wealth is not the stuff.

True wealth is leaving faith, it's leaving wisdom, and it's leaving stewardship to the next generation.

I was working with a family about six months ago, and they were right where this listener was working hard.

The husband was working two jobs, the wife was doing extra stuff to make extra money around the house, some homework, but they were still living paycheck to paycheck.

And they came in and sat with me.

They had seen something I had posted on one of my social media sites.

And they said, ralph, we need help.

No matter what we do, it seems like we can't get ahead.

And I sat down with them, I tried to understand what they were going through, and I felt for them.

They were working hard, they were budgeting, they were working hard, they were saving, they were watching where their money goes, but they were still striving and not getting where they wanted to go.

And I said something radical to them.

I remember the husband said, are you serious?

Do you really think that's going to work?

Ralph, I said, here's what I want you to do.

Just bear with me for one second.

When you get home tonight, I want you and your wife to kneel down at your bedside, and I want you to start praying about your finances.

And they said, wait a minute, Ralph.

We were always taught that you.

You don't talk about finances to God.

I said, just bear with me here, just try this.

I said, I want you to do a couple things.

I want you to start praying about your finances.

I want you to start practicing Sabbath rest, and I want you to start teaching your kids generosity.

Kind of looked at me like, ralph.

Okay, all right, fine.

If that's what you think is going to work.

And here's the thing I'm going to tell you right now.

Their income didn't triple overnight.

If you're thinking, oh, Ralph's got this miraculous story about these people met with him and the next day they woke up and everything was solved.

Their money was tripled, everything was fantastic.

That didn't happen.

And guess what?

It's probably not going to happen to you either.

But what did happen is every day, day after day, something started to build.

And it wasn't their bank account.

It wasn't their retirement account.

What was building was their confidence.

See, in so many ways, the.

The listener is saying she lacks confidence.

So how do we get to that confidence?

I want to give you some practical applications that you can start with right now, right where you are.

The first one is this, and I hope you heard this loud and clear today.

It was my overarching goal, build with God at the center.

So many people miss out on that piece.

What was God asking or commanding us to do in the Psalms?

What is he saying?

If you're doing it without me at the center, you are doing it in vain.

You are doing it in toil.

So pray about your financial decisions, every single one of them, big, small, whatever those things are.

Ask this question, is the Lord in this plan?

Every single financial decision, ask yourself, is the Lord in this plan?

And then once you do that, I want you to rest in his provision.

What did the Psalmist say?

You've got that anxious toil, and I just want you to replace that anxious toil with trust.

I mentioned a few minutes ago what I called that financial Sabbath.

It's time to take a break from worry.

I did a show about a week ago.

I said, is anxiety a sin?

A lot of people wrote to me.

They said, ralph, man, that's really harsh thing to say.

But I still stand by what I said.

Anxiety is a sin because the Lord has said he will provide to you.

So that's the second thing.

Rest in his provision.

And finally, biggest takeaway of today, start to think about legacy.

Look at your children, look at your grandchildren, look at the people around you and start to model stewardship and model generosity for your family.

Your legacy will always be greater than your paycheck.

That's what matters.

When you finally rest in Jesus at the end of your life, and I pray that you will find that peace.

What will matter at that point will not be your paycheck.

It'll be the legacy that you leave for your children, your grandchildren, and the people that you're leaving behind.

I just want to leave you with this right back to the verse, Psalm 127:1.

Unless the Lord builds the house, financial confidence comes when God is the builder.

So tonight, pray over your finances as a family.

Ask God to be the builder and just give it to him.

And I'm going to encourage you right now.

If you were impacted by today's show, I would really appreciate if you'd share it with somebody else.

You go right into your podcast app or your YouTube and just share it with somebody else.

Or you can send them to our website that's financially connected.

Confidentchristian.com because the Lord put on my heart that people need to hear this message today.

There are so many people that are struggling.

There are so many people who are living in financial anxiety.

And the problem is they lost sight of God being at the center of that.

Financial confidence comes when God is the builder, when God is at the center of it.

And I truly hope that you will find that peace today.

How about we pray together real quick?

Father God, we come to you right now broken.

We come to you right now full of anxiety.

Lord, we're working hard.

We're doing all the things that we think we can do on our own.

But Lord, we've come to the realization that you need to be at the center, Lord.

So we ask that you would come into our lives right now and take that center position, Lord.

And we trust you for the provision you've promised.

Lord, help us to not toil in vain.

Help us to not have anxiety, Lord, in all of this.

But just let us work with you at the center, Lord.

You become the builder of this.

And I ask this with confidence in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Friend, I hope you have a great day today.

God bless you and I'll see you next time on the show.