This morning, I was looking at my forecasts for the next couple weeks. I have to say, If I had not been following the advice I am handing out in this book, I would be having some serious problems right now. According to my forecasts,. we would be able to pay everything that was due, but with no cushion. All my emergency savings were gone due to my accident and an unforeseen delay in receiving expected income. Things look really, really good for the upcoming months, but the next month was looking bleak.
I have to admit, that my prayer life hasn’t been as robust as it should be; maybe because I was blaming God for my situation without realizing it. Well,.I rectified that problem today. I won’t go into all the details, because much of it is personal, but I sat on my bed and cried out to God. “God, I know you have a plan for me and I know there is a purpose for the storms you have allowed me to experience this past month. I’ve been doing everything possible to be a good steward and now I’ve reached a point where I can’t make any more changes. I need you to get involved and solve this problem today.” The rest of what I prayed is between me, my wife, and God.
About 15 minutes after I finished praying, I received a call from the Orthopedic Surgeon’s office. The doctor decided to change my work restrictions just enough to allow me to go back to work on a limited basis until we know if I need surgery on my shoulder. I had been pushing for this for a week, because even though I was planning on leaving that job soon, in order to devote my time to full-time writing, I still needed the income to meet my financial goals for this month. I then headed over to visit a creditor that had been threatening legal action. I sat down with a wonderful lady, who was willing to sit down and listen to what I had to say. I explained to her the transformation that has happened to my family finances and showed her this website and the book. Although, I had the money on hand to completely pay off the debt, it would have put us in an untenable position for several weeks. I asked if she would consider letting me pay half now and then the other half over the next four weeks. She called the lawyer and I heard her tell him that she had every confidence I would pay as agreed.
I doubt I would have had these results if I hadn’t humbled myself and prayed. Are you doing everything you can to cut back on expenses and still you don’t see any hope? You need to do two things like I did. You need to admit your helplessness to God and ask his assistance. Then you need to talk to your creditors and work out a mutually agreeable plan to pay off your debts. It’s not enough to decide you are going to make monthly payments on your various debts. You need to actually talk to those creditors and let them know what action you are taking.