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god's voice
Money and Finance
2 min.Read

Are Your Ears More Sensitive to God’s Voice or Good Intentions?

Brandi Hawthorne
By Brandi Hawthorne

Last Sunday, Pastor Ron Carpenter asked the congregation,

“Who would you be if ______ had never happened?”

During LifeGroup, we all went around and shared that thing that had threatened our future and shamed us.

As we shared our stories, we realized that the incident that had shamed us had also shaped us…even saved us.

We also realized that God had whispered multiple warnings before allowing us to hit our rock bottom.

And, we…WE had ignored them all.

We all vowed to be more sensitive to the nudgings of God so that we didn’t have to learn the hard way again.

Putting the Lesson Into Action…

My husband and I were headed for the financial graveyard.

We prayed about many decisions, but money hadn’t been one of them. We thought we were smart enough to crunch the numbers and make wise decisions. But, we fell prey to lifestyle creep. Even worse, we always seemed to overestimate how disciplined we would be tomorrow.

So, we’ve decided to pay attention to those “not yet” and “don’t do it” feelings that we used to push away.

Almost 2 years ago, we inherited a 24-year-old house that needs renovating. The carpet we love is still in the store. The vibrant paint colors we picked out at Home Depot – still on the shelf.

And, not because we don’t want them!

We’ve tasted the consequences of relying on our own wisdom: It tastes sweet at first, but always leaves a bitter taste in our mouths in the end.

A bitter taste that could have been avoided if we had listened to God and followed through.

So, we’ve decided to stop ignoring God’s warnings and to begin to do the work needed to dig us out of the financial hole we’ve dug for ourselves.

The Follow Through

How has God’s voice impacted our actions? We invite friends and family over for game night despite our beaten walkway and half wallpapered walls.

We aren’t willing to forfeit God’s destiny for us to please others.

And, we won’t forfeit our destiny to please our selfish desires, either.

But, we didn’t always think this way.

We had to ask ourselves what God wanted. God doesn’t care too much about freshly done floors. But, He does care about us not being chained to a credit card bill.

Listen Today for Tomorrow

It’s easy to say how productive and disciplined we’ll be tomorrow, but all we have is today. And, what we do today is setting us up to succeed or fail tomorrow.

What is God urging you to put down?

Is God urging you to step away from something or someone?

What is God urging you to take more seriously?

So, What’s the Play Call?

Don’t miss the whispers only to get hit with a brick later (Hebrews 2:1, Proverbs 16:18).

Make the decision NOW to listen and act on what God is telling you.

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They Changed Their Minds about Slavery and Left a Bible Record

0
Two businessmen’s unusual conversion in 1700s South Carolina led them to liberate the people they put in bondage. At first glance, William Turpin and his business partner, Thomas Wadsworth, appeared to be like most other prestigious and powerful white men in late 18th-century South Carolina. They were successful Charleston merchants, had business interests across the state, got involved in state politics, and enslaved numerous human beings. Nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary. But, quietly, these two men changed their minds about slavery. They became committed abolitionists and worked to free dozens of enslaved people across South Carolina. When most wealthy, white Carolinians were increasingly committed to slavery and defending it as a Christian institution, Turpin and Wadsworth were compelled by their convictions to break the shackles they had placed on dozens of men and women. In an era when the Bible was edited so that enslaved people wouldn’t get the idea that God cared about their freedom, Turpin left a secret record of emancipation in a copy of the Scriptures, which is now in the South Carolina State Museum. Perhaps it’s not surprising that this story of faith and freedom is mostly unknown. The two men were, after all, working not to attract attention. Neither had deep roots in Charleston or close familial ties to its storied white “planter” dynasties. Turpin’s family was originally from Rhode Island, and Wadsworth was a native of Massachusetts who moved to South Carolina only shortly after the American Revolution. Both had public careers and served in the South Carolina Legislature, but their political profiles were not particularly high. Neither of them appeared to give any of their legislative colleagues the sense that they were developing strong, countercultural opinions on one of the most ...Continue reading...

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