Navigating Difficult Financial Times

2 CORINTHIANS 4:17-18 NLT For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
PSALM 37:18-19 NLT Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever. They will not be disgraced in HARD TIMES; even in FAMINE they will have MORE THAN ENOUGH.
PSALM 37:23-25 NLT The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord HOLDS THEM BY THE HAND. Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have NEVER SEEN THE GODLY ABANDONED OR THEIR CHILDREN BEGGING FOR BREAD.
How to Navigate Difficult Financial Times:

1. Refocus your TRUST in God alone.
   PROVERBS 3:5-6 NLT Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
   PROVERBS 3:5-10 NLT Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. 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.

3 Major Things About Trusting in God Alone:

1. God’s REVEALED WILL is based on TRUST.
2. Your HEALTH is based on TRUST.
3. Your PROVISION is based on TRUST.
   PSALM 118:8 NKJV It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
   ISAIAH 26:3 NKJV You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
   JEREMIAH 17:7-8 NIV “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

2. You have to keep God FIRST in everything you do.
   MATTHEW 6:25-27 NIV “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more VALUABLE THAN THEY? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
   MATTHEW 6:31-33 NIV “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. BUT
   SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU AS WELL.”
   • First in MY TIME • First in MY TALENT • First in MY TREASURE
   MALACHI 3:10 NIV “Bring THE WHOLE TITHE into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
   2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-4 NIV And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.
   2 CORINTHIANS 8:12-15 NIV For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”
3. Allow God to take you through a VALUE TRANSFORMATION.
   Victory’s Value Motto: Simplicity — Sincerity — Sacrifice