One of the things that resonated with us while in Financial Peace University was that it was a program showing you how God wants you to handle the money He blesses you with. We believe in God and we prayed diligently every day morning and night for guidance on how to handle the money we made in a way that would glorify Him. Being in debt was not glorifying Him as He has called us to be the lender and not the borrower – Deuteronomy 28:13. As we started the journey to debt freedom we instantly felt peace in doing this the right way, His way.
To get out of debt we knew we not only needed to handle what we had the right way but we would need increases in income to get out of debt in the time frame we wanted to. We prayed for increases in income because we knew seminary loans would be coming due soon. And just like that, not only did God hear our prayer, He answered it in His way. I got a promotion.
When I resigned from my 1st job in Michigan to start at another company, that increase was 27% more than I had been making. My first promotion at the new company was another 20%. This increase in income came right when we needed it and motivated us to be even more gazelle intense with paying off our debt. We knew we wouldn’t acknowledge the increase but take whatever it was and throw it at our debt snowball.
We didn’t know when Mr. HutchLife would get hired by a conference but we knew Pastors don’t make a lot of money so we wanted to be wise and intentional with what we had. This would condition us to continue doing that when Mr. HL got a job.
We were still doing monthly budgets and weekly check-ins and this increase moved up our timeline to pay off our debt. We were so thankful and gave praise where it was due. It’s not just about praying for an increase. It’s also about putting in the work. Faith without works is dead – James 2:17. We worked hard and still work hard because we have dreams, goals and aspirations and we don’t want to be debt to anyone as we pursue them.
Is your faith wavering? If you received an increase in income what would you do with it? What have you done with it?
