Have you ever heard the saying, “If you want to understand your priorities in life just take a look at your bank account”?

My husband and financial coach, David van Noppen, uses this quote with people often, and it reminds me of something Jesus said: “For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”

Your bank account is a great place to look to understand where your heart is at.

It is actually quite an amazing exercise if you have the courage to do it. Take a look at your bank account, your spending, your time even. Where does your money go? Where do you spend your time?

 

The exercise is not to bring you discouragement or to point a finger so you walk away under condemnation. It is an exercise that reveals the truth of what really matters to you. It is an exercise that can launch you into some intentional money management. It is an exercise that can draw you closer to the Father who made you, and into some of His purposes on earth.

The Word of God says that we are in a struggle between the flesh and Spirit. The Apostle Paul said that he struggled, doing what he didn’t want to do, and not doing what he wanted to do.

 

Sometimes we have the desire to give more money to those in need, or to our churches, or some “God projects”, but our money is tied up in interest payments to the bank. We don’t do what we desire to do because we think we can’t.

Our desire is not reflected in practical outcomes. So what can we do? Costs are rising. Life seems to be getting harder and harder financially. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Our government is overspending into huge debt loads, and we feel we don’t have a choice. We are barely making it.

But that is where we believe a lie. We always have a choice. We may need to make some hard decisions to turn our financial ship around, but we always have a choice. We can do this.

 

Scripture says that God has set eternity in our hearts, and Jesus repeatedly challenges us to live for eternity.

Author Frances J. Roberts writes that God’s ageless purposes are set in eternity like a large outer wheel. Our time here on earth is like a small wheel within that bigger wheel of eternity. One day the inner wheel will cease for us when we die.

 

In his devotional, Come Away My Beloved, Roberts writes: “You will move into your place in the big wheel when the little wheel is left behind. See that now you redeem the time, making use of it for the purposes of (God’s) eternal kingdom, thus investing it with something of the quality of the big wheel. As you do this, your days will not be part of that which turns and dies, but of that which goes straight forward and becomes one with (God’s) great universe.”

 

Investing in the eternal future of God’s purposes is key to living in the outer wheel, where we bring joy, love, provision, forgiveness, freedom, hope, life, light, kindness, goodness, and generosity to people every day.

 

However, the pressures of our culture, can keep us in the smaller wheel if we don’t make some intentional choices every day. In the pressure cooker of the world, we have forgotten our first love Jesus Christ. We have dismissed and perhaps even buried the truth that eternity is in our hearts.

 

It is time to dig eternity out from the piles of money, stuff, debt, material possessions, and bad choices.

Take courage. Look at your bank account and spending habits to see what they tell you about your priorities. Write a list of your dreams, desires, and hopes. Write down where you really want to be putting your money. Tell your money where to go, don’t let it tell you. Make a plan and find an accountability partner or a More Than Enough financial coach to help you.

Start digging out. It is worth the effort. It is worth the freedom.

Rebecca van Noppen is a teacher, home educator, writer, intercessor, and More Than Enough blogger, who happens to be married to a financial coach. A lover of Jesus, she is on a journey of surrender, kindness, and generosity.