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Does God Really Care About My Money, or Is That Too Small To Bring To Him? · Becoming Financially Confident

• 0:37
  You bow your head to pray about your bills and the thought stops you cold.
• 0:42
  Doesn't God have bigger things to deal with?
• 0:45
  Isn't my bank account too small to bother him with?
• 0:48
  That one belief keeps a lot of believers from bringing their finances to God at all.
• 0:54
  So today, let's see what Scripture actually says about it.
• 0:58
  This is a question that quietly shapes how a lot of us pray or don't pray.
• 1:03
  And the answer changes how you carry every money worry that you have.
• 1:07
  So stick with me today and let's bring this honestly before God together.
• 1:20
  Hello and welcome to Financially Confident Christian.
• 1:23
  I'm Ralph Estep Jr.
• 1:24
  And thank you so much for joining me today.
• 1:27
  Today we've got a deep spirituality question, and that is, does God actually care about your money?
• 1:35
  We got a listener question who's asking, is it too small or too worldly to pray about it?
• 1:40
  And she feels this guilt bringing money to God, and she's not sure if he's actually interested in the details.
• 1:48
  This is one of the most sincere, tender questions that we've gotten in a long time.
• 1:52
  And a lot of faithful people carry this same question quietly.
• 1:56
  So that's what we're going to unravel on today's show.
• 1:59
  And maybe you've got a question you're wrestling with or you're dealing with in your own mind, whether it be a financial question or spiritual question, I'd love to hear from you.
• 2:08
  You can send it to me by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question We'll put a link right in the show notes.
• 2:16
  You can click on it.
• 2:17
  But again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question Well, let's get right to our listener question today.
• 2:24
  Listener writes this hi, Ralph.
• 2:27
  This might sound like a strange question for your show, but it's been on my heart.
• 2:31
  Now let me pause there for a second.
• 2:33
  There are no strange questions.
• 2:35
  Send them to me.
• 2:36
  But let's continue.
• 2:37
  When I'm stressed about money, I hesitate to pray about feels almost selfish or too small, like God has wars and sickness and real suffering to attend to.
• 2:48
  And here I am worried about my electric bill.
• 2:51
  I also grew up with some vague sense that money is worldly, so bringing it to God in prayer feels almost wrong, like I'm dragging something dirty into something holy.
• 3:02
  But money stress is one of the biggest weights I carry.
• 3:05
  So I guess I'm asking, does God actually care about this part of my life?
• 3:10
  Is it okay to bring my finances to him, or should I just handle that part on my own?
• 3:16
  Thank you for taking a question like this seriously.
• 3:19
  Well, thank you for sending in your question and.
• 3:21
  And yes, I'm taking it seriously.
• 3:23
  And spoiler alert, God takes it seriously, too.
• 3:27
  God cares about every part of your life, including your money.
• 3:32
  Nothing about you is too small for him.
• 3:34
  We're going to unwind that today.
• 3:36
  And it's far from being too worldly.
• 3:38
  Money is one of the things that Jesus talked about most in the Bible, believe it or not.
• 3:44
  So today I want to settle this from Scripture, but let's start here.
• 3:48
  Nothing about you is too small.
• 3:50
  Jesus said it himself.
• 3:51
  He said, God knows the number of hairs on your head.
• 3:55
  Think about that for a second.
• 3:56
  I don't know how many hairs are on my head, but God knows it.
• 4:00
  He sees every sparrow that falls.
• 4:04
  A God that attentive is not too busy for your electric bill or whatever you're dealing with.
• 4:12
  The size of your concern doesn't determine his interest.
• 4:15
  His love does that.
• 4:18
  God isn't some distant CEO triaging for big crisis.
• 4:21
  Well, if it's got to be a big issue or God's not going to hear it.
• 4:24
  No, we have a father who cares about the details.
• 4:28
  If it's weighing on your heart, and it's clear that it is, it matters to him.
• 4:34
  If God counts the hairs on your head, he's not too busy for your bills.
• 4:42
  Now look, like I said a minute ago, look how many times Jesus talked about money.
• 4:48
  It's not some worldly side topic that God ignores.
• 4:51
  Jesus addressed it constantly.
• 4:53
  If you go back and look at the parables, a huge share of Jesus parables touched money.
• 4:59
  They talked about possessions.
• 5:01
  They talked about stewardship.
• 5:04
  He talked about it more than any, almost any other subject because it touches the heart.
• 5:08
  And see, that's the key we don't think about.
• 5:11
  Your finances aren't off limits or beneath his attention.
• 5:15
  The God who taught so much about money welcomes you to bring your questions.
• 5:22
  Jesus talked about money constantly.
• 5:24
  It was never beneath his attention.
• 5:28
  But I think we've got to do something here because you use the world worldly and we got to separate that from sinful.
• 5:35
  There's a belief out there that money is dirty because it comes.
• 5:38
  It comes from a misunderstanding.
• 5:41
  I talked about this on last week's show.
• 5:43
  Money isn't evil.
• 5:45
  It's a tool.
• 5:47
  And tools can either serve good or ill.
• 5:50
  Now, Scripture is very clear.
• 5:52
  It warns us about the love of money, not the use of it or prayer about it.
• 5:58
  Bringing finances to God isn't dragging dirt into the hole.
• 6:01
  Use that in your.
• 6:02
  In your question.
• 6:02
  I Thought it was interesting, but it's really about surrendering an area of your life.
• 6:09
  It's not worldly to pray about money.
• 6:11
  It's actually faithful.
• 6:13
  Money isn't dirty.
• 6:15
  Bringing it to God is surrender.
• 6:18
  That's not sinful.
• 6:20
  So bring your finances honestly.
• 6:23
  Scripture invites you to bring everything to God in prayer.
• 6:26
  It says that bring all things to God in prayer.
• 6:29
  I remember as a kid we used to sing a Sunday school song about that.
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  Everything includes your money.
• 6:36
  Pray about your bills, pray about the decisions, pray about the fear.
• 6:41
  Pray about that provision that God has already guaranteed you.
• 6:45
  Don't clean it up first or decide it's too trivial.
• 6:48
  Bring it as it is.
• 6:51
  Cast your anxiety on him.
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  Includes your financial anxiety.
• 6:57
  The weight you've carried alone is the weight he's inviting you to hand over.
• 7:02
  Because everything means everything.
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  Bring your money to God exactly as it is.
• 7:10
  And when you do that, let trust change how you carry it.
• 7:14
  Because that's really what we're talking about here.
• 7:16
  It doesn't mean you stop being wise and stop being practical.
• 7:20
  It means you got to do practical work from trust instead of panic.
• 7:24
  Yes, pray.
• 7:26
  Ask God to give you some ideas, but then plan and surrender and steward.
• 7:31
  All those things go together.
• 7:34
  His care doesn't replace your effort, it steadies it.
• 7:37
  Because you handle money differently when you know you're not handling it alone.
• 7:42
  That's why I love the word stewardship.
• 7:44
  You're stewarding something that he's given you to work.
• 7:46
  So pray and plan, surrender and steward.
• 7:51
  He carries it with you, not instead of you.
• 7:56
  Now, you said something in your message today that I think resonates with a lot of people.
• 8:02
  You said money stress is one of the biggest weights you carry, but you hesitate to bring it to God.
• 8:09
  If I could look through and see a show of hands, I guarantee there would be a large percentage of people who feel the exact same way you do.
• 8:19
  But friend, that's exactly the weight he's asking for.
• 8:23
  Not because it's too big for you, but because he loves you too much to let it carry or let you carry it alone.
• 8:31
  But here's what faith doesn't promise us.
• 8:33
  It doesn't promise us that every prayer about money gets an instant yes.
• 8:37
  Listen, if you think you're going to go pray and you're saying, oh, God, I got all these bills.
• 8:41
  I just want to pray about these and I want you to pay them.
• 8:44
  It doesn't promise your bills are going to vanish.
• 8:47
  It doesn't promise some easy road.
• 8:51
  But it does promise us that you're seen and you're known.
• 8:55
  And nothing that weighs on you is too small for the God who made you in the first place.
• 9:00
  Jesus pointed to the sparrows.
• 9:02
  He said, not one falls without the Father, and you're worth far more than them.
• 9:08
  See, that's the heart of the answer.
• 9:10
  A God that is attentive, cares about your details.
• 9:15
  Money worries aren't some interruption to God.
• 9:17
  They're an invitation to trust Him.
• 9:19
  And that's really what we're talking about.
• 9:21
  Do you trust Him?
• 9:23
  So bring him that electric bill.
• 9:25
  Bring him those big fears, because he welcomes both of those.
• 9:31
  So stop hiding your finances from God.
• 9:33
  He already knows about it.
• 9:35
  You don't have to qualify that.
• 9:37
  Bring them all to Him.
• 9:39
  He's been waiting to carry this with you.
• 9:42
  Your money worries are not too small or too worldly for God.
• 9:46
  The way you're carried alone was never meant to be carried alone in the first place.
• 9:51
  Every part of your life can go to a father who cares about the details.
• 9:57
  So here's your win for today.
• 9:59
  I want you to bring one specific financial worry to God in prayer today.
• 10:03
  By name.
• 10:05
  They might be saying, ralph, how do I pick that?
• 10:08
  Pick the money concern weighing heaviest on you right now, whatever that thing is for you, and pray about it specifically.
• 10:17
  I'm not talking about some vague, well, I hope my money gets better.
• 10:19
  No, I want you to be specific.
• 10:22
  Is it an actual bill?
• 10:24
  Is it the decision that you need to make?
• 10:26
  Pray about it.
• 10:28
  And then take one practical step on it from a place of trust.
• 10:33
  You don't have to fix all your finances today, but you're ending the habit of leaving God out of them and reframe your mind.
• 10:41
  The things we think are too small to pray about are often the ones stealing our peace in the first place.
• 10:48
  Well, let's get right to our Bible verse today comes to us from the Book of Matthew, chapter 10, verses 29 to 31.
• 10:55
  It says, what is the price of two sparrows?
• 10:58
  One copper coin.
• 11:00
  But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your father knowing it.
• 11:05
  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
• 11:09
  So don't be afraid.
• 11:11
  You're more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows, which just nails what you talked about today.
• 11:18
  The whole question was whether you're too small to matter to God.
• 11:23
  And this verse nails it.
• 11:25
  It answers it directly.
• 11:27
  He notices the sparrow.
• 11:29
  He notices the number of hairs on your head.
• 11:32
  And if he attends to that level of detail, your finances aren't beneath him, my friend.
• 11:38
  Don't be afraid that's his response to exactly the worry you're carrying.
• 11:44
  How about we pray together right now?
• 11:46
  Heavenly Father, I bring before you someone who has been carrying money stress quietly and they're unsure if they're even allowed to bring it to you.
• 11:54
  Lord, I want to thank you that nothing about them is too small for you to love.
• 11:59
  Lord, help them to see and help all of us to see that you care about every detail of our lives, our finances included.
• 12:08
  And Lord, just free them from that false belief that money is too worldly to pray about or it's sinful.
• 12:13
  Teach them to bring their bills and their fears to you honestly.
• 12:18
  Replace that financial panic with the peace of trusting in you and remind them they are worth more to you than a whole flock of sparrows, Lord.
• 12:26
  And we just ask this in the name of Jesus.
• 12:29
  Amen.
• 12:31
  Now, many of you came in today wondering if your money was too small for God.
• 12:35
  But you're leaving.
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  Knowing nothing about you is too small for God.
• 12:40
  He counts the sparrows.
• 12:41
  He counts the number of hairs on your head.
• 12:44
  Your finances aren't beneath his care, so remember, nothing is too small.
• 12:48
  Jesus talked about money constantly.
• 12:51
  Being worldly isn't being sinful.
• 12:53
  So bring it honestly and let trust change how you carry it forward.
• 12:59
  I'll say this.
• 12:59
  Pray and then plan.
• 13:02
  Now, if you're facing a financial situation or you just want somebody to listen, how about you send me a voicemail?
• 13:08
  You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail we'll put a link in the show notes, but again that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail thank you so much for joining me today.
• 13:20
  I want to encourage you, as always, stay financially savvy.
• 13:25
  May God bless you and you have a truly great day.
• 13:38
  I.