As we continue to make our way through the Advent season it’s a great time to reflect on the coming of Christ and its significance. Oftentimes this season can become overshadowed by events, shopping, work, travel, and other year end activities but as Christians it’s an opportunity for meaningful preparation, reflection, and praise.

In this post our advisors get to talk about some of their favorite causes they support as they praise God and connect this season of giving to the birth of Christ and its eternal impact.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving here in the United States, I am reminded that “Giving thanks” is what this holiday is all about.  After all, the story of Thanksgiving says that it originated when pilgrim settlers celebrated their first harvest together with the Native Americans that helped them survive in the New World.  They gave thanks to Our Lord for the blessings they were provided. 

I get the privilege of teaching at my church this month on the topic of the Rich Young Ruler and I see a lot of overlap to financial planning conversations I get to have with our clients at Flourish FP. As such, I wanted to share a few thoughts with the CFAN followers from this famous account in scripture.

Before we even begin, I want to stop and rephrase the question: is it even possible to have peace in our financial lives?

As I was listening to a sermon titled, “Our Peace: God’s Will” by the late Dr. Charles Stanley, the question of whether we can have peace in our financial lives began percolating in my mind. We are used to discussing peace in our lives in the general sense of what we believe peace to be, but my mind started thinking about the correlation between peace in our lives and peace in our financial lives.

When we think about financial planning, the first things that come to mind are wealth accumulation, investment strategies, and building a comfortable future. While these are all important, there’s a deeper concern that often gets missed—the spiritual and moral implications of our relationship with money and possessions. It's crucial for believers to understand how to manage wealth effectively while guarding against the dangers of materialism. The good news is that those two goals can be achieved together.

While the Bible doesn’t give us many great examples of insurance products specifically, it does talk about how we are to respond to threats.

I’ve often said that contentment is one of the most powerful tools that one can have within one's financial toolbox. Why? Because it offers both spiritual and financial benefits (more on this below). Contentment is one of the best ways to steward and plan well, all while guarding your heart against the power of money.

As a Christian financial advisor working in a Christian faith-based financial advising firm, I’m fortunate to have a front-row seat to the world of Christian for-profit business.

And while navigating two potentially competing paradigms (maintaining your Christian values and running a for-profit business) provides unique challenges, the opportunities it affords to make a Kingdom impact are well worth the effort!

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

This one sentence parable has been on my mind quite a bit recently. Jesus shares back-to-back parables (this and the pearl of great value) and says that the finder goes and sells all that they have as a result.

I love the topic that my CFAN Colleague, Anil “Neil” Chacko, discussed last month, What Does The Bible Say About Work And Retirement?

He used the scripture Genesis 3:17, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Work was set up for us to do, since the beginning of time. God gave each of us a role to play.

In my early years, I viewed work as a punishment. I felt that it was unfair that I had chores to do. I felt that it was a punishment for being a child, subject to my parents’ whims and commands, rather than the contribution toward the good of the family that it was.

As I got older, however, my views changed on work. I began to earn money from my labor, and this changed everything. I began to see the importance of work in everyday life, as a requirement to earn money and pay for the things that were important to me.

The beginning of a new calendar year commonly conjures up thoughts of new beginnings and fresh starts. That’s why many people make New Year’s resolutions—those lofty goals that often fall by the wayside by Valentine’s Day. A Forbes survey found that improved finances is one of the top five New Year’s Resolutions that people make, with a third of people ages 26 to 57 naming it.

Each year our advisors love to collaborate on a group blog post around Advent/Christmas time and address what a specific topic means to us.

This year we chose, “What is Advent and how does it relate to your finances?”

As we progress into the final quarter of the year, it tends to beg the question, “What are the tax advantaged year-end giving opportunities?”

As Christians, we want to make sure we’re maintaining a generous heart but also taking advantage of what the tax code has to offer.

As Christians, we know the Bible has much to say about wealth. Over and over again, we read warnings about the perils of greed and the power money can all-to-easily have on our hearts.

Through our work with many Christians over the years, we know all too well the profound internal struggle wealth can present.

It is my joy to study and discuss what generosity looks like in the life of a believer. You’ll probably notice that several of my authored articles on CFAN discuss some realm of generosity. I was speaking with another Christian advisor recently who shares this passion - seeing the joys of generosity awaken in the lives of his clients. This is typically a long process - finding joy in generosity. It isn’t something that someone just wills to happen overnight because generosity is different than giving.

Life Insurance is one of the topics that is particularly sensitive to me.

Why, you might ask? And that would be a very fair question.

Isn’t life insurance necessary?

As Christians, one of our core beliefs is that the Holy Bible is the infallible Word of God.

Many Christians tend to view their money through the lens of stewardship, meaning that God is the ultimate owner of everything and we are just managing it for him. We even have two different blog posts on stewardship on this site, this one by Kaysi Gordon and this one by Chris Wells.

When we think of stewardship, we usually think of budgeting, managing debt, or even passing our wealth to the next generation. But what about taxes? When was the last time taxes came to mind when you were considering your stewardship journey?

Just because you have a budget does not mean that your budgeting honors Christ. Just because you use a budget does not mean that your budgeting honors Christ. Just because you use a Ramsey-approved envelope system does not mean that your budgeting honors Christ.

So how can we know? If we have a desire to honor Christ in all that we do, how do we know that we are stewarding The Lord’s resources through budgeting in a way that honors Christ? Let’s start with what is not.