Scriptures teaches us to budget

Our Bible teaches us to budget. Budgeting is a plan for allocating resources and it is important for every business man and even families. We need to budget how we will pay our electricity or water bills, how we will pay our rents or how we will pay our taxis or fuel our cars in the month and most importantly how we will run our giving in church or charity per given period we chose. This is necessary to avoid the head ache or stress generated when there is lack due to poor management of the available resources. Budgeting will help us do away with worries. The Bible calls the person who does not budget a lazy man or woman and they are told to take the example from ants who prepare food for their summer by gathering her food in the harvest though the ant has no ruler. Proverbs 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; Consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler, Provideth her bread in the summer, And gathereth her food in the harvest.”

Budgeting requires a careful and conscientious attention and so budgeting will increase your resources. The one who does not budget is lazy and therefore hasty, the lazy never cares for details and this will only lead to poverty. Proverbs 21:5 “The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; But every one that is hasty [hasteth] only to want.” When we budget, we carefully consider consequences of each action we wish to take so there is good judgment and our scriptures say if we do this we foresee the evil and keep away from this evil but he who does not budget is not prudent and so is simple hence he gets into projects or actions eyes closed and is punished; proverbs 22:3 “A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.” This verse also teach us to save; we save our actions, we save our plans, we save our resources when we see evil and hold back. So we do not get into investment when we see that it will not work. To carefully budget we need a good knowledge of what we are about to do and our scriptures say with this we will be filled with allprecious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3,4 “Through wisdom is a house builded; And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge are the chambers filled With all precious and pleasant riches.” Good sense is acquired as we come close to God, and this is the foundation of a well established man. So with wisdom we can build the house likewise we need wisdom to build our plans and our understanding is used to establish that this is true or acceptable, then our knowledge can now be used to complete our plans with that pleases us. So we can not base our plans on knowledge. We need the wisdom from God to build these before our knowledge can be applied to fit in our desires which are real riches else we shall be drawn away from real riches because real riches comes from God.

Do we really need to budget? Can we not just wait and when God wants to bless us He will do it? I’ll answer with some ones comments. A pastor said he usually budgets with his wife what they will do if by some means they gains a certain sum of money. I just imagine you budgeting what you will do if you had one million, ten million or fifty million now. This is money he does not have but he does not know how he will get it. The pastor said this is a way to prevent stress if by any chance he is blessed with that. There are people in our societies today whom if you give them just 100000 Fcfa they will fall sick. A friend told me when they had their first salary from the school of post and telecommunication; some students wrote a very long list of what they will buy; a car, 5 pair of suits, a set of chairs, some pair of shoes and so on. This list is from an amount of around 1 million Fcfa. The reason is that these guys have never held or manage more than 100000 Fcfa through out their studies. So when they receive this they think it’s a big sum and how will it look if an old man in the village who has only been managing from his pocket of maize react when he is paid 2 millions for compensation on say a road passing through his farm? This story is just to show us the importance of budgeting as compared to our daily life. But what does our scripture say? The man who does not have a rule, self-discipline, self-will, a governing power, a principle governing his conduct is like a broken down city without a wall. So if we can not establish rules governing our businesses, our own spiritual life, our family life, etc then there is not protection for these things. They can crumble at any time because there is nothing to guide it, you will never know when it is working well or not. Proverbs 25:28 “He whose spirit is without restraint Is [like] a city that is broken down and without walls.” Our scriptures say we should not be naïve else we shall pay the penalty (Proverb 27:12). Just as we need to evaluate our decisions to follow Christ and consider the consequences, our Lord in the spiritual insight also teaches us to be diligent and to plan well knowing the cost in order to work for what ever we want to do before we move on not to be mocked by people. Luke 14:28-30 “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have [wherewith] to complete it? Lest haply, when he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him, Lest haply, when he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him,” When we budget, we keep aside something in order to achieve our planned goal. The apostle Paul taught this to the church in Corinth as a way of gaining time; and every Christian would budget based on what he or she gains as income to know what to save. 1 Corinthians 16:2 “Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.”