Simply Grateful
Testimonies of God’s Financial Blessings and Intervention
by
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The road to financial freedom can be intimidating and lonely. This is especially true if we look around and see our family members and friends purchase material things, we want but can’t afford. I was born into a family with eleven siblings. Most of them handled their finances very well. Imagine me a CPA with a banker husband telling these financially responsible siblings that we were strapped with debt. Oh my, that was a lonely and embarrassing place to be. However, when we realized I was pregnant with our first child, what other people thought (actually, what we perceived they would think) no longer mattered. Craig and I decided we had to do better for our children. One of our first actions before reading books by Larry Burkett and Ron Blue, and before creating a budget, was to seek God for help through our journey to financial freedom. We repented for allowing ourselves to get into financial bondage and we decided to take faith on our journey to financial freedom. Without doubt in my mind, that was our best decision.
Faith means “a complete trust or confidence in someone or something” (New Oxford American dictionary). As Christians, Craig and I chose a route to financial freedom that included placing our faith in God to help us. This meant we were going to commit ourselves to following Biblical financial principles. Our go to scriptures were Hebrews 11 KJV, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” After this first verse in Hebrews chapter 11, the text talks about some of the “heroes” of faith throughout the Bible and then continues in verse six, “But without faith it is impossible to please him (God): for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Throughout our journey to financial freedom, we have discovered faith changes things. We also learned how true God’s word is that says if we believe Him, he will reward us if we diligently seek Him. In our lives and our finances, God has truly rewarded us for diligently seeking Him.
Faith in God requires us to commit our actions to God’s direction: and sometimes one step at a time without a clear picture of how things will turn out. Faith also requires us to trust that God knows what He is doing on our behalf. While this seems to be a big risk, the fact is that people do this regularly with other people and professionals. When we have surgery, we do not understand clearly what the doctor must do. We take him at his word and trust he will perform the surgery without any damage to us. We trust contractors will build our kitchens and baths according to code. When we trust these professionals and they are good at what they do, we expect the outcomes to be to our benefit. With God, the same principle of faith applies. Regarding finances, we can go to God and let him know that we want financial freedom and we need His expertise and guidance. After acknowledging God and confessing faith in Him, we must let God guide us. I do not suggest this is easy, especially in the beginning of the financial freedom journey. In fact, there may be times you go back to old spending habits. As mentioned before, Craig and I did. However, I encourage you to get back up and start the financial faith journey from where you left off. The more you rely on faith in God, you will see how much God responds to your faith. Start your journey of faith by first identifying your financial mistakes and when and where you overspend. Next, repent to God for not being a good steward over the resources committed to you. Then sit down and develop that budget. Finally put all those before the Lord and ask Him to take over and do financial surgery on your finances or be your financial contractor by allowing Him to build your financial future. When you are sincere about financial freedom and commit to it by following God’s direction, God will respond to your commitment.
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About the Book
Ephesians 3:20 “This scripture is not simply saying God is able to bless us in a great way or with abundance; of course, He can and does. It is telling us that God is able to exceed what we as mere humans consider to be abundance. If we think what we have is an abundance, then we have fallen short on our understanding of what God can do. If we can imagine it, then God can exceed it. Therefore, after the phrase “exceeding abundantly” comes the phrase “above all that we ask or think.” God does not limit what He can do for us; only we can do that “according to the power that worketh in us.” In other words, only our level of faith in God limits how far He exceeds our expectations. Be clear: abundance is not just about how much money or material possessions we have; it’s more about the peace we can experience amid our abundance.“
About the Author
Regina Fowler was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the tenth child of twelve to her parents, Jesse and Mary Battle Sr. Her parents taught Regina and her siblings to trust God no matter how life appeared on the surface. Their faith influenced Regina as she watched them live their lives completely trusting in God’s promises. Regina committed her life to God at the age of sixteen under the leadership of her late father and pastor, Bishop Jesse Battle Sr. At her church, she served in many capacities, including being a Sunday school teacher, the financial secretary for her church, and youth president of her home church and her regional church organization. After her father passed and her church moved from the city limits, Regina and her family moved their membership to another church in the city of St. Louis. It was at that church she was encouraged by her pastor’s wife, Sheila Coleman, to teach regular series on financial stewardship. After being allowed that opportunity, Regina became passionate about encouraging other Christians to put their trust in God to handle and expand their finances by using biblical principles regarding financial stewardship. Regina became a certified Dave Ramsey financial counselor in 2016. Regina is a certified public accountant and practiced her profession more than thirty-four years before retiring from full-time work at the end of 2018. She has led the finance and human resources divisions of several organizations in St. Louis, Missouri. In retirement, she continues to teach accounting courses as an adjunct faculty member at one of the local universities and serves as a director on several not-for-profit boards. Regina and her husband, Craig Fowler, a financial professional also, have been married more than thirty-eight years and have two children, Erin Fowler, an attorney, and Andrew Fowler, a journalist.