Financial Planning with a Foundation of Faith

As a member of Kingdom Advisors, advisor Jim Sterling offers planning advice based on biblical principles. For those who have placed their trust in the Bible, there are clear principles presented for them to help guide them toward good financial management, provide confidence and peace, and to align their hearts and minds with the purposes God has directed.

Unchanging principles

A core tenet for a believer is that biblical principles are always right, always relevant and are never going to change. We know that if we build our foundation on biblical principles, we can then withstand the hurricanes of life. Yes, we may take on some damage, but our foundations will stand and the house will stand.

A clear decision-making framework

Another tenet is that at any given time, we have a set amount of financial resources, or financial “pie.” Each of our pies might be a different size, but we all have a limited number of ways to utilize our pie. Kingdom Advisors breaks it down into the categories of Live, Give, Owe and Grow. While simplistic on the surface, having a clear vision of our choices on how to “spend” our resources can help lead us to better decisions when it comes to balancing short-term needs versus long-term planning, how to approach charitable giving, and how to manage taxes. It follows that no financial decision is an independent decision, and for the Bible follower, every financial decision is a spiritual decision.

Thinking long term

The Bible states that we are stewards, not owners. Biblical stewardship is the use of God-given resources (time, talent, treasure, truth, relationships, etc.) for the accomplishment of God-given goals and objectives. The longer term the perspective, the better the financial decision today.

A biblical perspective is to recognize that no matter what my earthly compounding of money is, it still pales in comparison to the compounding of that money for Kingdom purposes. The key is to have an eternal perspective and be purposeful with how we accumulate wealth and how we make use of our wealth.

Biblical financial planning is not better than Wall Street-modeled financial planning; it’s just different. For those who are seeking to adhere to biblical principles for their finances, we have the ability to provide their financial planning in a process that makes use of both methods. They are not mutually exclusive, but additive.

For more about biblical financial planning, read this guide.

For more faith-based resources, click here.