Articles > Legacy

Creating financial goals to accomplish a debt-free future

Build To Completion
By Amber Drabek

My church home is presently building a new sanctuary in my city. We have seen the blueprints, the dream, and the plan evolve into an actual building. The sanctuary is presently close to completion. It will be such a grand event to walk into the finished structure and to call it my new church home. The church will be able to leave a legacy for generations to come, and that’s exciting. However, could you imagine if those blueprints and plans never were actually completed? They would be just dreams and ideas that never came to pass.

As part of the process of completing the Financial Freedom in 7 Weeks Plus course, action plans and financial goals were created to guide me to an accomplished structure and a debt-free future. God gave me these blueprints to guide me in accomplishing this goal. He will free me from a debt prison to accomplish what He created me to do. It is no longer my money or all about me, but it is His money and all about Him. “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ… He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.” Ephesians 1:11 (MSG)

I had to build on this foundation and to put the plan into action. A cash flow control system was the next step in this process. It is a system that simply keeps track of God’s money—where I spent it, wasted it, or saved it. Your plan will look great on paper, but you have to keep track of what monies are actually coming in and going out.

The envelope system is one of the cash flow systems I chose to use. I simply cash my paycheck monthly and place the cash into labeled envelopes to use for specific spending categories. I have an easier time controlling my spending and tracking my cash flow if the monies exist in a cash form, in designated category envelopes. I tend to have more control issues when I use a credit card or a check card. The envelope system allows me to envision more effectively how much I have spent or have left to spend. In turn, I am far less likely to overspend or to acquire more debt.

So, now can you imagine my new church home as a beautiful sanctuary with a completed structure? Many people will come to the church to glorify our Father. I want my financial structure to also be a finished structure that glorifies our Father. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, and I intend to leave a legacy whether he has enough to finish it--- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’.” Luke 14: 28-30 (NKJ)