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Evaluation
Make an honest evaluation of your financial situation. Before you can get out-of-debt, before you can start saving, and before you can become a generous giver, you need to take a hard look at your financial situation.
- Determine, to the penny, how much debt you have.
- Figure out your monthly income and your monthly outflow (expenses).
- How much saving do you have?
- Do you have any money set aside for your retirement?
- Does your employer offer a match on your retirement savings? If so, are you saving up to the match?
By doing this, you make an honest evaluation.
You might wonder if the Bible talks about making an honest evaluation of your financial situation. While the book of Nehemiah does not talk about money or finances, it does address the need for us to figure out what is wrong before we go willy-nilly and start making changes without forethought.
In the book of Nehemiah, he inquired about what was happening in Jerusalem. There was destruction in the city. Its walls and gates had never been rebuilt. Years of neglect had taken its toll on the city.
Nehemiah 1:1-3
The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
Before he ran off to Jerusalem, Nehemiah asked what had happened to the Jew in Jerusalem. He heard the news about what needed fixing, the wall and the gates. He didn’t begin to address the problem without knowledge. He evaluated the situation prior to committing to fixing the problem. If you don’t have a clue about your financial situation, how do you expect to fix it?
