Are You Too Broke for Christmas or Too Blessed to Notice?

Are you feeling the financial pinch this holiday season? You're not alone! We kick things off by diving into some eye-popping stats about how most folks are stressing about money during Christmas. But don’t sweat it too much—today, we're all about keeping that faith strong even when our wallets are looking a bit sad. I share my own wild story of holiday money struggles, and trust me, it gets real. Are You Too Broke for Christmas or Too Blessed to Notice? We’ll explore how to shift our focus from our bank balances to believing in a faithful God who provides, and I promise, it’ll be a game changer. So grab a comfy seat, and let’s get into it!

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Check out the full podcast episode here

The holiday season is upon us, and for many, it feels like a financial minefield waiting to explode. With statistics showing that a whopping 61% of Americans dread the holidays due to money woes, the pressure's real, folks. Today, we're diving into the nitty-gritty of how to keep the holiday spirit alive when your wallet's looking a bit empty. We tackle a listener's heartfelt question about maintaining faith during tough financial times. Spoiler alert: it’s not about how big your bank account is, but rather how strong your faith is! I share my own cringe-worthy story of bouncing a check to make Christmas special for my kids, proving that even those of us who crunch numbers for a living can find ourselves in a tight spot. We explore practical steps to take, like trusting God with your needs, doing an identity check to remember what truly matters, living in gratitude, and most importantly, inviting God into your finances. Let’s face it, faith over fear is the name of the game, and we've got the biblical wisdom to back it up. So grab a cup of cocoa, kick back, and let’s chat about keeping joy in the holidays without breaking the bank!

Takeaways:

• A whopping 61% of Americans dread the holidays mainly due to financial stress and worries.
• 76% of folks report emotional distress during the holidays, which adds to the financial pressure we all feel.
• Trusting in God is more important than having a fat bank account, so keep the faith alive!
• Living paycheck to paycheck means many are cutting into their disposable income for holiday spending.
• Gratitude flips the script on feeling broke and turns that frown upside down, trust me!
• Don't hide your financial struggles from God, He knows your needs better than you do.

Links referenced in this episode:

• financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming
• I Searched for Happiness Everywhere and Found the Surprising Truth

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Episode Transcript

(00:27):
Hey, let me ask you aquestion. Are you too broke for Christmas
this year? That's a toughquestion. Or maybe the better question
is it's your faith that'sbroken. Well, I thought I'd start
some statistics today. Listento these statistics. These will blow
you away. 61% of Americans aredreading the holidays. Why? Because
they're worried about thatextra spending and that financial

(00:48):
burden that so many of us feelthis time of year. Listen to this
one. 76% of Americans say theyexpress emotional distress. The so
called money wounds. Thosethings that continually come back
every holiday season justcreates this huge financial pressure.
Hey, this is supposed to bethe time of joy. But 76% of Americans
say they live in emotionaldistress, especially this time of

(01:11):
year. And listen to this one.I'm not going to bore you with too
many more stats today, butlisten to this one. 46% of Americans
who are living paycheck topaycheck spend so much on the holidays
that they cut into theirdisposable income. These are real
statistics and I bet as you'relistening right now, they affect

(01:31):
you. Well, they certainlyaffected today's listener. Let me
tell you, today's listenerquestion says, Ralph, this year money's
really tight. I want to enjoythe holidays, but I'm embarrassed
that I can't give like I usedto. How do I keep my faith up when
finances are low? Well, let metell you right now, that's the million
dollar question, isn't it?Because you not have the same amount

(01:51):
of money as other people. Buthere's one thing I want to promise
you, you have the samefaithful God. See, peace doesn't
come from your bank accountbalance. It comes from your belief.
So let's talk about keepingour faith today when we're struggling
financially. That's what we'regoing to cover on today's show.
This is Financially ConfidentChristian, your daily dose of gospel,

(02:12):
grounded insight and faithdriven tips to help you break the
cycle of financial shame with confidence.
Welcome to the show. I'mRalph. I want to thank you for joining
me on your journey today as wetry to keep the joy in the holiday
season without going broke.And that's what we're really focusing
in on today. The overall goalof this show is to help you break

(02:33):
that cycle of financial shameand do it with confidence. And this
time of year, I hear it timeand time again, so many people are
emotionally and is financiallystrapped. And here's one thing I
want to share with you rightaway. Most peaceful people that I
know aren't always thewealthiest. They just aren't. But
you know what they are.They're the ones who trust God with

(02:53):
what they have. And listen,I've had to learn that lesson myself.
I'm going to tell you a story.It's going to blow you away today.
All of us have had those leanseasons where faith and not finances
carried me through. So let mepaint a picture for you. My wife
and I were very young or twoyoung kids at home at the time. I
was working for a job where Igot paid once a month. So you can

(03:14):
just imagine what Christmaswas looking like here. December 25th
is coming, and my wife and Iare trying to figure this out. I
mean, things were super tight.We had just moved into a new rental,
and we had to buy a lot ofstuff. And we're looking at our balance
and saying, listen, we haven'tbought much for the kids this year.
What do we do? We were bothstressed out about it. We had two
little boys, and we're like,oh, man, society saying they need
to have all these toys and allthis kind of stuff. And we made a

(03:36):
decision, and I'm gonna tellyou right now, it was an embarrassing
decision. As I look back atit. We went shopping and we intentionally
wrote a check that we knew wasgonna bounce. That's just the truth.
I want to put it out there foryou. I'm not proud of that. We made
good on it. Don'tmisunderstand me. I didn't go and
not pay. But we knew at thetime when we were writing that check
that it wasn't going to beavailable when they put it in. Now,

(03:57):
fortunately, they were able toresubmit the check. We paid some
extra fees, but it was thatstress of that moment, that wanting
to make sure we had for ourkids. So listen, I'm an accountant.
I'm a trained person. I hadgone to college for accounting, and
I felt that stress, too. Andlike I said, I'm not proud of it.
But let's look at what CoreyTen Boom once said. You can never

(04:18):
learn that Christ is all youneed until Christ is all you have.
And, man, I wish I knew thatat the time because I would have
handled that situationdifferently. Let's get back to our
question today, and that's howdo we build our faith when we feel
financially broken? You mightbe feeling that financial brokenness
right now, but I'm going togive you some ideas right now. First
thing, you've got to focus on,stop worrying and put your trust

(04:42):
in God. Because the truth isGod knows your needs. He knows your
needs before you know them. Healready understands them. And here's
the beautiful part of that.He's not limited by your paycheck.
God doesn't have a balance toworry about. So trust him. See, stop
worrying. Put your faith inhim. Second thing I'm going to encourage
you to do is do an identitycheck. I'm going to say something

(05:05):
bold here. You might be alittle bit taken back by what I'm
fixing to say. Christ didn'town anything. It doesn't talk about
the Bible. Christ's house thathe owned. I mean, he had his sandals,
he had his clothes, he had alot of things. But here's the thing
we need to understand asChristians, our worth isn't found
in possessions. We'll have allthe possessions in the world. We

(05:26):
can have all those things. Iknow people that have had them. But
that's not where your worth isfound. It's found in your purpose.
And I'm going to point you tosomething. I don't know if you know
this or not, but I do a weeklyshow. It's called Truth Unveiled
with Ralph. And it's really ashow about unwinding culture and
tying it back to biblicaltruth. And I just did a show about
consumerism and I'm going toencourage you to check that out.

(05:46):
We'll put a link to that inthe show notes. It's a weekly show,
but it gets a little deeperthan what I do on the daily Financially
confident Christian. But I, Italk all about consumerism destroying
all of us. So I'm encourageyou to check that out. But let's
get back to today's show.Another thing I'm going to encourage
you to do is live ingratitude. Because when you're grateful
for things, think about howmany times that you've been in a
tough time and you start tothink, I don't have enough. But when

(06:11):
you have a gratitude, itchanges your perspective. It turns
out that thankfulness, thatgratefulness, it turns that not enough
into, listen to this, morethan enough. So when you're feeling
down, like when we werethinking about that with the kids,
I could have made a betterdecision. I could have thought, you
know what? These kids have somuch to begin with. It wasn't like
Christmas was going to be.They don't have any toys. So consider

(06:34):
what you already have andalong that road, surrender it all
to Christ. See, God is nevergoing to bless what you hide. So
one of the things I'm going totell you this show. One of the main
capstones of this show isinvite God into your finances. This
is why I tie the two thingstogether. A lot of people say to
me, Ralph, it's strange howyou tie faith and finances together.

(06:57):
Well, here's how I do that.Because we need to come to an honest
acknowledgment. It's all hisanyway. So when we pretend like we're
going to hide it from guesswhat? He already knows. God already
knows when you're struggling.He already knows when things are
tight. And you just wondersometimes, is he just saying to you,
listen, just reach out to me.I can help you. Now, he might not

(07:21):
give you this abundance. A lotof people think that when you pray
about finances, God's going torush this abundance on you. Scripture
never promises that. Itpromises us provision, not comfort,
but acknowledge him. He can'tbless what you hide. And finally,
it's all about faith overfear. See, big takeaway for today.

(07:44):
Fear says something like this.Fear says, I can't. When you live
in fear, that's what youconstantly hear. You hear that in
your head, I can't, I can't, Ican't. But faith says something so
much bigger than that. Andthis is what you can take to the
bank today. Faith says Godcan. And I'm going to go a little
extra step. And God will.Let's get into our Bible verses.

(08:06):
Today we actually have two,because I couldn't decide on which
one I liked best. Let's getinto the first one. Very common book
from the Book of Matthew,chapter 6, verse 33. It says this,
but seek first his kingdom andhis righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you aswell. And I pick that because think
about that. What are weleaning into there? Seeking first
his kingdom. That's soimportant. Seeking first faith, Seeking

(08:31):
first understanding him andhis righteousness. And what does
it promise to us, all thesethings. Now, he's not talking about
stuff. He's not talking aboutyou're going to get a brand new car,
you're going to get avacation, all those things. So he's
talking about. He's talkingabout the things that matter. Let's
get to our second Bible verse,and that's from the book of Philippians,
chapter 4, verse 19. And myGod will meet all of your needs according

(08:54):
to his riches of his glory inChrist Jesus. I don't even need to
comment on that one because itsays it all right there, doesn't
it? He's going to meet all ofour needs how about we pray together?
Lord, we come to you right nowand we just ask that you would help
to teach us. Lord, help us totrust you more than our bank account.
So easy to get stuck on thosebank accounts. Help us to see the
provision through your eyes,not through world's eyes, not through

(09:17):
society's eyes. And Lord, helpus to remember the abundance that
you've already given us. Andremember that it's not measured in
dollars, but it's measured inour purpose. And we ask this in the
mighty power of Christ. Amen.So here's your action item for today.
Real simple thing. I want youto write down three ways that God
has provided for you thisyear. Listen, if we're being honest,

(09:38):
we probably make a list two orthree pages thick. So whether it's
big or small, just write downthree things and thank him for each
one of them. And then when youstart to feel broken, read that list
and remember how much he'salready given you. And I want to
give you something right now.I just finished writing my third
book, and it's called how toBecome a Financially Confident Christian.

(09:58):
And it's yours absolutelyfree. All you gotta do is go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming
so today. No matter what yourbank account says, God's presence
is your greatest security. Andgratitude reminds us of what we've
already got. And it's in hishands. So trust opens up that door
to peace every single time. Sogo out there today and be a financially

(10:19):
confident Christian. Stayfinancially savvy, go God bless,
and I'll see you on tomorrow's show.