8 Weeks of Prayer Finance
The following is a list of eight prompts, one for each week to help you to pray about St. Timothy and finances. It will be helpful to have a notebook that you can refer to during this year. The notebook can be used to write down specific questions that you have for God, as well as any thing you hear or feel during your prayer time. It’s a great way to keep track of what you’ve asked God and how God has answered.
1.This is the first of 8-weeks of discernment about finances. How we handle our financial means matters a great deal to God. In fact, the bible speaks about finances and money about 2,350 times, which is nearly twice as many as those about faith and prayer combined! Why do you think the bible talks so much about stewardship, money, and financial management? Do you believe financial management is a spiritual matter, or something far more mundane? Spend some time this week asking God in prayer to reveal how you are meant to handle your finances.
2. There is a guy on the internet that goes up to strangers in retail stores and asks them if they’d like to have a hundred dollars or to give ten strangers a hundred dollars. If you were offered that opportunity, which would you take? If you took the cash for yourself, how would you use it? If you gave it away, where would you go to find the strangers and what would you tell them when you offered them the cash?
3. Matthew 6:24 says that you cannot serve both God and money because you will despise one and be devoted to the other. What choice have you made? What does is look like to serve money over God? Spend some time in prayer asking God to show you the importance of choosing to serve him over money.
4. One of the benefits of having money beyond your needs is the opportunity to invest. Ponder a way that we as a church could invest our money that would also be loving and serving our neighbor. Don’t worry about financial returns on this invest, think of some other types of returns we could get from it (how it might change the landscape of our community, families that are stronger, children that don’t have to worry about hunger, etc.)
5. 1 Timothy 6:10 says the love of money is the root of all evil, causing people to wander from their faith and leading some to being pierced with grief. Why is the love of money so destructive? How have you seen the love of money lead to grief in your own life? Spend some time this week asking God to help you to flee from the love of money so you can pursue godliness and faith.
6. There is an old saying of “Show me your checkbook and I’ll show you what’s important to you.” What sort of things does your checkbook say about you? Does it reflect what you find most important about life? If not what sort of things can you change to get them more in line?
7. We have the freedom to spend our money any way we like, but there are consequences to choices like overspending, short changing, and counterfeit funds. There are also consequences to hoarding and being stingy. Ask God if you’re using your freedom well and if there are any areas that need improvement.
8. We have spent the last 8 weeks pondering and praying over finances. What’s your overall takeaway from this time of discernment? What have you learned about how you manage your financial means? What behaviors or thought patterns has God asked you to change? Going forward, ask God to help you to continue to show you how handling your finances is a spiritual matter that reflects your commitment to him.
