How Can One Daily Habit Keep Me Focused on What Matters Most?

You've built strong habits, you're making real progress, you're seeing change. But here's the question. How do you make it stick long term? That's the tough part, isn't it?So today we're going to talk about what simple rhythm will keep you grounded even when life gets busy. So stick with me because today we're building your daily intentional living. Check in. This is an episode you don't want to miss.This is Financially Confident Christian, Your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and I am truly honored that you're here again today.This is the show where we ask that big question, how can I become a financially confident Christian? And when our final week of our new series, beyond the Budget, Finding financial freedom through intentional living.Now, yesterday we talked about finding the unshakable confidence in Christ and not cash. And if you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to go and check it out. It's a great episode.We really got to where you need to have your faith in Christ, not in your bank account. Well, today we're going to get super practical.Let's talk about a daily routine that keeps your finances and hey, more importantly, your peace aligned with your values. Well, let's start by being honest. You start strong, most of us start strong.And you budget, you track your spending and you're feeling really focused. But then like most of us, life gets busy. Maybe you miss a day or maybe two, maybe three. And then your tracking starts to slip.And those goals, well, to be honest, they just start to blur. And before you know it, you feel like you're just slipping. That consistency becomes your greatest struggle. But I've got great news for you today.There's a simple solution. And that solution is a daily rhythm to keep you anchored. Here's the thing. Small daily disciplines lead to big peace.It's all about that daily, that thing you do every day, that rhythm. And the beautiful part of this is you don't need some 30 minute ritual.You just need two, three, four, maybe even five minutes a day to just have some clarity, have some surrender and have some intention. Well, let's get right into the scripture. Let's look at the Book of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 11. And Jesus teaches us to pray. What does he say?Give us today our daily bread today. Not weekly, not monthly. Daily. Jesus is giving us the answer. Pray daily for our daily bread. What we need to keep that Rhythm going.Let's look at the book of Luke, chapter 16, verse 10. It says this and I use this on the show all the time. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Again, it's that daily.It's those little things, those little things that add on that, create that and keep that momentum going. And finally, let's look at the book of Galatians, chapter 6, verse 9. And Paul writes this, and I love this scripture.Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Paul nailed it. Don't become weary in doing good. That daily rhythm, that decision every day to do the right thing with your finances.Because at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we. What if we don't give up?See those small check ins daily, they may not seem like much at the time, but honestly, they're building that long term freedom. And what they do in the end is they turn that stewardship, that daily stewardship into a rhythm.A lot of people say, Ralph, yeah, but it becomes a burden. No, it's a rhythm, not a burden. So now you're asking, Ralph, what can we do? How do we get to that point of having that mindset?What does that daily rhythm look like? Well, I've got a solution. I kind of alluded to it already.And I'm going to encourage you to establish a two to five minute daily, what I'm going to call intentional living. Check in. It's really that simple. So the first thing I want to tell you to do is keep it simple. Just check in daily, 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes.Keep it simple, keep it sustainable, and most importantly, let that ground you every single day. When I want to give you your action item for today, you know, on the show, I always want to give you one thing that you can take away.We talk about a big topic and then I try to just narrow it down into an action step. So today I want to tell you how to build that daily rhythm for yourself. The first part of this is to choose a time.I'm going to encourage you to pick a consistent moment for you. Maybe for you it's that morning coffee time. That's a time that's sacred. You're always at the right spot. You can do this.Take a couple minutes and just go through that. Maybe for you it's before bed at night. Now listen, I gotta be honest with you. Before bed, for me, I'm tired. Not the best time for me.But maybe that works for you. Or maybe for you at your lunch break. It's a great time to kind of catch in, see how the day is going.That rhythm, maybe after your devotionals, that's a good time for you because here's the secret sauce. Consistency beats intensity. You have to be intense about it, but just be consistent. Choose a time every day.Like I said, that's your morning coffee before bed. Hey, whatever works for you. And then ask yourself a couple of quick questions.I'm going to give you a list of those and I'm just going to encourage you to keep two of those on top of your mind. Here's what I suggest. Ask yourself this question. Did I track my spending today? Say a simple question. Did I track my spending day?It's going to help you maintain that rhythm. Another question you can ask is, did I spend in line with my values? We talked a lot about that on the show.What are my values as it relates to spending, as it relates to my finances? So ask yourself, Did I spend in line with my values? Here's another great question. What's one financial task for tomorrow? Sort of that. Pre planning.What's going to happen tomorrow? What's on the. What's on the calendar? What's on the agenda? Is there something coming up? Is there a bill coming up? Is there, Is there money coming in?What's that one financial task? I'm going to encourage you to close it out with this question because here is another one of those big truth bombs.Ask yourself this question every day. What am I grateful for today? Simple. What am I grateful for today? List those things out.Because when you start to live in gratitude, hey, that rhythm becomes something you look forward to. And then of course, this being a Christian show, I'm going to encourage you to add a quick prayer to that.Something like, God, thank you for today's provision. Provision, guide me tomorrow. I surrender any financial stress to you. It doesn't have to be some elaborate big long prayer.Just, hey, look up to God and say, God, just thank you for the provision today. You know, it's been a struggle, Lord, but I know you're right there with me and just help me to get through the rest of today. Guide me tomorrow.And I just surrender all this to you. And like I said from the beginning, the key is to keep it short.This doesn't need to be a half an hour or an hour, some kind of crazy amount of time every day. This is not your devotional time. That's a discussion for a whole nother show. Just two, three, four, five minutes.Hey, a couple minutes a day just to keep that rhythm going. Because the goal, like I said at the beginning of this, is consistency. It's not depth, it's just a consistency. And now you're thinking of yourself.Okay, Ralph, I get it. But how does that help? Well, here's. Here's one of the biggest things it does. And don't overlook this. It makes financial awareness automatic.It's something you do every day. Hey, it's like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, whatever that looks like for you. Shaving for me. It makes it automatic. It's a daily rhythm.It's a daily check in.And if you're doing it right, if you're asking those questions, it keeps your spending aligned with your values because you're doing that check every single day. You're doing that intentional check in. Hey, what am I spending money on? Am I tracking it? Is it in line with my budget? Is it in line with my values?It also helps build gratitude and it helps build peace. Because you know what's going on. You're not wondering.There have been times in my life, I'll be honest with you right now, I didn't even open up my online banking app because I was scared to see what was out there. And I would just let it go and let it go. And hey, sometimes it was a week, sometimes it was a couple weeks.Finally log in and be like, oh, I'm scared to watch it. Oh, okay, I'm okay. But just think about the stress that that created then and the complete lack of peace.And if I just had that daily rhythm to check in, see what's going on. Because if you do this, it's going to anchor your finances is in daily faithfulness. How about we pray together?Father God, we just thank you for the grace you give us each and every day, Lord. And we confess honestly that we often start strong, Lord, but we struggle to stay consistent. You see that? You see the struggles we go through.So, Lord, we just ask that you help us form this daily check in as a rhythm of gratitude and a rhythm of awareness and honestly, just a rhythm of surrender, just handing it to you, Lord. Yes, we're going to do our part, Lord, but we want to give you the stress of this. We want to give you the burden.And, Lord, we ask that you would help us to feel your presence even in the small things like tracking a dollar or praying over a bill. Lord, we just ask that you would keep us faithful in the little.Lord, as your scripture says, as your word says, just keep us faithful in the little so we can be trusted with more. And we ask this in confidence. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen, friend.As I've said a couple times today, and I want you to hear this loud and clear. Consistency always beats intensity. It just does. It's all about being consistent.You don't have to be super intense, but if you're consistent, it will get you somewhere. Because here's the truth. Big transformation. I'm talking about monumental transformation.The stuff that you're thinking down the line, those big, hairy, audacious goals. Big transformation begins with small faithfulness. So I want to encourage you today, start your daily check in, make it yours.Pick the time, pick the topics, whatever that looks like for you. Make it yours. Keep it simple and let it be sacred.One of the other things I'm going to encourage you to do right now, if you're getting value from this show, if this is changing your financial life, if you're finding things in the show like Ralph, I'm so glad you talked about that. One of the ways that you can help me is to help grow the show. Just share this show with somebody else.Maybe, you know, somebody that's struggling right now with their finance and they can use this daily habit to check in. Or maybe it's a topic we've covered in the last 30 days on our series about budgeting and being intentional. It's real simple.Just send them a text message, send them an email, say, hey, check out this website, financiallyconfidentchristian.com they might not look at it every day, but hey, it could be just a little bit of a little fire to give them, to help them get on their way financially. And you have the power to do that. Now. Tomorrow we're going to wrap up this series beyond the Budget with a powerful final episode on.Hey, ready for this one Lifelong stewardship. We talked about those little steps. Well, tomorrow we're going to bring it all to closure with lifelong stewardship.I'm going to bring it all together, package it up in a nice bow, and we are going to be profitable in that. So until then, I'm just going to encourage you. Stay faithful, stay consistent and stay financially confident. You've got this.I have confidence in you, have confidence in yourself. God bless you. And you have a peaceful and productive day.