Are you looking for a Christian finance workbook based on biblical principles? Read or listen to the Introduction to the Your Finances God’s Way Workbook to see why it stands out among finance workbooks.

Table of contentsKeeping God’s Word In Your HeartBeing A Doer Versus Only A ReaderFinancial Storms Will ComeThe Importance Of ObedienceResponse Determines OutcomeWisdom and Foolishness RevealedThe Benefit Of Writing On LearningUsing This WorkbookFootnotes

Finances are one of our most essential stewardships. If for no other reason, we should want to manage them well. I want to acknowledge and commend your commitment. You've not only read Your Finances God’s Way but also invested in this accompanying workbook. This shows your dedication and willingness to learn how to handle money in ways that please God and bring Him glory.

Keeping God’s Word In Your Heart

As a pastor, I’ve spent numerous hours counseling people. This experience has familiarized me with the most common problems people face. I have seen them struggle and find solutions in God’s Word, which provides wisdom for every area of life, including finances. When I ask you to trust God’s Word, I do so because I have seen it work in my life and the lives of people I’ve counseled.

This workbook is designed to encourage practical application and bring real change (because that’s what applying scriptural truth does—it brings about change). For this to happen, we must keep God’s Word in our hearts, as it repeatedly reminds us:

“These words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).

“The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip” (Psalm 37:31).

“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

“Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart” (Job 22:22).

Your Finances God’s Way is not the Word of God, but it's a guide filled with the Word of God. I've written this workbook to help you apply the teachings from the book and keep God’s Word in your heart. As Jesus said, “The good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15).

Being A Doer Versus Only A Reader

From years of weightlifting, I’ve had lower back issues. I’ll go to the physical therapist and learn the stretches and exercises I’m supposed to do at home, but I rarely do them. My wonderful wife, Katie, repeatedly says, “Why do you go to those appointments if you’re not going to do what you’re told?” I don’t have a good answer. My actions indicate that I wrongly believe simply going to the appointments helps me, but I’m deceiving myself.

We make the same mistake when we read scriptural truth but fail to apply it to our lives. James 1:22 says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” This verse reveals a common mistake I make with the physical therapist, and many of us make it with God’s Word: We learn it without applying it to our lives.

We do this with our finances when we believe we have done enough simply by learning what the Bible teaches about money, reading Christian finance books, and attending Christian conferences or Bible studies on money. But as believers, our responsibility goes much further than simply obtaining information. We must also apply it, or none of the knowledge we gain will be of any benefit. We do not learn God’s Word only to acquire knowledge. We learn it to apply it and better serve the Lord. Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it…If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (Luke 8:21; John 13:17). He also taught an entire parable making this point:

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came,