A Financial Fast

A Financial Fast

Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

Proverbs 3:9-10

If I were to draw a pie chart labeled “My Worries” in order to track the source of my anxieties, 50 percent would probably be allotted to my children, 30 percent to family and friends, and 20 percent to financial worries. What about you? What would your chart look like?

Michelle Singletary is a columnist and the author of a book entitled The Power to Prosper: 21 Days to Financial Freedom.^a Her answer to financial stress is to hit it head-on by undertaking a twenty-one-day financial fast. The basic idea, field-tested by members of her church, is to put yourself on a spending diet for three weeks, during which time you promise not to use any credit or debit cards; to buy only what you absolutely need (like food and medicine); to use only cash; to forgo looking at retail catalogs, visiting malls or stores, or shopping online; and to refrain from eating out. The idea is to evaluate where you are spending your money so you can use your resources in a way that glorifies God and brings greater freedom to your life.

The world promises that purchasing new things will make us happy or hoarding resources will make us feel secure. But God’s Word is countercultural—it’s only when we give what we have back to God that we can have true peace of mind.

If financial worries comprise 10 percent or more of your “worry pie chart,” why not consider reading Michelle’s book and starting the new year by undertaking a financial fast? Doing so will likely present its share of challenges, but it may be just what you and I need in order to experience more of God’s peace in the future.

Lord, help me to become more intentional about my finances. I want to stop being anxious about money so I can become more generous and peaceful.

^a Michelle Singletary, The Power to Prosper: 21 Days to Financial Freedom (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).