Success and Failure Blog

A Mandate from God is Serving Others

As Christians, we are called on by God to the role of serving others — and not only in the area of finances. We are to serve others with every opportunity we can find, and to always be looking for opportunities to do so. And next to witnessing to the testimony of the Gospel, it is a primary function as children of God as well as loving God with all of our hearts and souls and minds.

When we think of serving others, we often think of getting involved in charities or giving money to homeless people on the side of the street. However, serving is so much more than that. It is not something we do once in a while. It is a way of life.

Always have the thought of service to others in your heart, every waking moment of every day. There are all kinds of unexpected ways to go about this. You may not even realize you are doing it at times. For example, getting up before your children and making them breakfast and fixing their lunchboxes for school is serving. Making dinner for your family or buying groceries for your housebound grandmother is serving.

We are serving when we allow someone to get in front of us in traffic or let someone with fewer items get in front of us in line at the grocery store. Even picking up something that an old person dropped and handing it to them or retrieving a ball from a roof for a child are all ways of serving others as God intended, if done with the right motives.

However, be careful. If we serve because it makes us feel better, than no reward will be set aside for us. It is for a selfish reason … that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Matthew 6:2.

Do it out of a heartfelt desire for, and love of, God. We are to serve for his pleasure, not ours.

The whole point of serving others is to think of the needs of others before we think of our own. As parents, we are used to doing that with our children, but we often forget to do it in other parts of our daily lives. We may become short-tempered with strangers, act selfishly in public, and decide that we deserve something more than someone else and grab that sweater out from under the reaching hands of someone else at a department store sale.

When tempted to be selfish, just remember how much God gave to us. It should be all we need to soften our hearts and serve as we were meant to as we serve God by serving others.

Learn to Negotiate Your Own Credit Card Debt

Why should you pay a credit counselor or loan consolidation service for their help when you could be negotiating your own credit card debt yourself?  It will not pardon what you owe, but could go a long way to eliminate unsecured credit card debt.

First, you must have all of your ducks in a row.  You are going to be speaking one-on-one with a representative who can help reduce your payments, so it is imperative that you be prepared.  Know exactly your total credit card debt.  Be certain to have the exact amount of your minimum monthly payment requirements at hand.  Have a detailed personal budget in front of you so you can informatively discuss what your monthly earnings and expenses are and suggest what sort of payment you can afford.

Let the credit card company know that you do indeed intend to pay your account in full, but you are looking for some help in reducing interest rates and eliminating late fee charges.  Ask the representative what you have to do to get a zero percent APR for six to twelve months.  Negotiate from a position of strength.  After all, you owe them and they want to get their money.  In the event that they tell you a zero percent APR is not available, tell them that you are sorry to hear that, as you may have to consider transferring the balance to another card and closing this account with them.  Be polite and courteous, but firm, when negotiating your credit card debt yourself.

The Bible admonishes us to be good stewards of what God has allowed us to have.  Doing so involves honoring the vows we made to pay for the item not matter what it takes.  Our reputation before others is much more valuable than the cost of what is owed.

In this effort, never lose your cool or start to sound exasperated.  If you are transferred to another party, start over from scratch.  Never assume that the person you spoke to formerly has passed any information on to the next person with whom you speak.  It is quite possible that the first representative just passed you along to get you out of their hair.  When you are told that they cannot help you, politely ask to be passed along to someone who might be able to help.  This is referred to as escalating the call, moving along to a higher authority.

I know this can get tedious, but patience and persistence often pay off well emotionally and financially.

Remember that you are in the process of saving yourself a lot of money.  By negotiating credit card debt yourself, you are saving fees and interest rates that would come from credit counseling and debt consolidation options.  Once successful, you will also be saving yourself interest charges and late fees.  So, if you get passed along and find that you’re repeating yourself over and over again, stick with it. The end result will definitely be worthwhile.

There is more help with credit cards to help you save money, live debt free and enjoy the many blessings around you.  Also, be sure to sign up to receive a free report, tips on budgeting, and encouragement to make your money worries go away.

For more reading on this, check out a further perspective on credit card debt settlement.

When I became a Christian, just after I arrived here in the USA, I was taught the lesson of tithing and I never forgot it.  My wife, then my girlfriend said that I should give 10% of my income back to God.  I thought she was crazy. “10% ! I said.  Are you crazy? I only made $800 per month…that’s $80!   That’s a lot of money to me! I don’t even have enough to live on!”  It’s probably the same you would say.  After some convincing, I gave it a shot.  To my surprise, the next month I made $3,000, which is the most I ever made.

The question is, who is your provider? Is it you?  I realized, as a Christian, you give that job over to God. He becomes your provider.  By giving back 10% of your income you show that you trust God to be your provider.  If you’re a Christian and you don’t exercise that principle, you’re missing out on some great blessings from God.  I would not be surprised if you’re struggling financially because of that.  Give it a shot…you’ll be surprised as well!