Free How to Defeat Harmful Habits (Counseling Through the Bible Series) by June Hunt Page A

you.
     
    Before you purchase anything, ask yourself:

    “Is this purchase a true need or just a desire ?”
    “Do I have adequate funds to purchase this without using credit?”
    “Have I compared the cost of competitive products?”
    “Have I prayed about this purchase?”
    “Have I been patient in waiting on God’s provision?”
    “Do I have God’s peace regarding this purchase?”
    “Does this purchase conform to the purpose God has for me?”
    “Is there agreement with my spouse [if you are married] or accountability partner about this purchase?”
     
“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”
    (L UKE 12:15).
     
    In order not to be caught off guard or fall into deeper debt, make a plan that includes some of these practical steps that will enable you to develop healthy spending habits.
    B REAKING THE H ABIT OF O VERSPENDING 64
    • Avoid preferred shops and pick new stores to make your needed purchases.
    • Check with stores before leaving home to ensure they have the things you need.
    • Confine orders from catalogs, the Internet, and TV shopping channels to only those items already on your shopping list.
    • When you feel the desire to go shopping divert your attention to another enjoyable activity.
    • Keep only one credit card for emergencies.
    • Limit your window shopping to after hours or when you have no means of making purchases.
    • Never shop when you are tired, depressed, excited, or lonely.
    • Plan your shopping trips to tempting locations late in the day so you will arrive with just enough time to limit yourself to purchasing necessities before the doors close.
    • Put off buying anything you are hesitant about purchasing.
    • Shop only when you have a shopping list, and purchase only items that are on the list.
    • Tell your spouse, friend, or shopping buddy exactly what you plan to buy when you shop.
    • Use cash, check, or debit card when you make your purchase.
    • Use mail-order catalogs to purchase specific items only, not for browsing or compiling a list of items for purchase.
    • When thinking about purchasing an item, ask yourself: Do I really need this? Can I afford it?
    T HE P LAN FOR F UTURE P URCHASES
    • Formulate a realistic weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly budget with the help of a financially responsible person, and keep to it.
    • Develop and implement a savings plan.
    • Enter purchases in your checkbook and deduct them from your balance on the day they occur or within the next few days.
    • Start a list of any expensive items you would like to purchase in the future, do three cost comparisons on each item, and then determine when you can realistically save the money to purchase each item.
    • Disclose all of your purchases and the cost of each to your spouse, friend, or accountability partner.
    • Purchase and wrap gifts early for loved ones you will be visiting throughout the year in order to avoid making superfluous or more expensive purchases during your visits.
     
    Pray before walking into a store to purchase an item and ask, “Lord, is this a hasty decision or a well-planned one? Is this just my will or Your perfect will?” Remember…

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty”
    (P ROVERBS 21:5 NKJV ).
F. How to Help with Accountability Questions
    Bethany Hamilton would be the first to say she has not made the journey from shark-attack victim to national surfing champ alone. It would be difficult to imagine a more supportive family than hers. Along with them, friends, fans, and a close-knit church community have cheered this surfer continuously.
    Encouragement is important. But when it comes to shedding old habits, learning new ones, and achieving goals once thought unobtainable, nothing is more critical than accountability. For Bethany, that has come, first and foremost, in the form of her surfing