THE ENTRUSTED QUESTION · EVERY WEEK
What has God entrusted to me, and what does faithfulness look like here?
Last week: your heart follows your money. It does not lead it.
Tonight
A plan does not keep the bad thing from happening. It decides what you still have standing on the other side of it.
Some money trouble comes from decisions. That kind you can learn from. And some of it walks in the front door without knocking and without asking your permission.
Both of those are in this chapter. They are not the same thing, and they do not get the same answer.
Scripture
PROVERBS 24:16 · ESV
for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The righteous man in that verse falls. Seven times. And what he is called does not change in between. A consequence is what happened. A verdict is what it says about you.
JOHN 9:1-3 · ESV
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The disciples look at a man's suffering and go hunting for who caused it. Jesus tells them nobody did. He takes the scoreboard away.
Doing this right is not a deal you make with God that nothing bad will happen to you. We handle money faithfully because that is what a steward does, not because faithfulness buys a fence around your life.
The 70/30 Budget
70%Living. Housing, food, gas, insurance, the kids, all of it.
10%Emergency savings
10%Long term investing
10%Giving
All of it figured on take home pay, what actually lands in the account. This is Bobby's framework, not a Bible verse. Generosity belongs in a Christian's money because of who God is. The percentages are his arrangement.
It is a direction, not a door you either got through or did not. You do not have to start there.
START WHERE THE MATH IS TRUEIf debt and fixed bills already use more than 70%, do not force 70/30 on paper. Use 90/10 to stabilize or 80/20 to rebuild. The Action Sheet will calculate your real starting point and the exact dollars you need to free up.
The system does not work because the percentages are magic. It works because it makes you choose on purpose instead of hoping it works out.
Tonight's Exercise
Nothing is collected. This stays on your paper or your phone. Nobody sees it, not the person next to you and not the teacher.
- Find your take home pay. Not what you make. What actually shows up in the account.
- Figure seventy percent of it. Change nothing. Make no plan. Fix nothing. Just look at the number.
- Then one more question, for everybody. What is one dollar that could move this week?
A number you have looked at is smaller than a number you have been avoiding. Every time.
Your Entrusted Step
Set up one automatic transfer this week.
How much An amount small enough that you do not have to be brave about it. Five dollars is a real answer. The point is that it happens without you deciding again every week.
Where · pick the one that fits your house
No cushion yet: a separate savings account at a bank or credit union, federally insured, somewhere you are not swiping out of every day.
Your job puts in money when you put in money, and you are not getting all of it: look hard at that. It is part of your pay.
A card with a high rate on it: an automatic extra payment against it is a real answer too.
Cushion already in place: give the dollar a name. Car repair. Christmas. Property taxes.
When A day you know good and well the money is in there. Right after payday, not the day before. A transfer that overdrafts you is not a step forward.
There is no single right order for everybody. A dollar with a job beats a dollar without one, every single time.
Automatic beats heroic. Especially the weeks you have got nothing left in you.
IF YOUR DOLLAR IS GOING TO EMERGENCY SAVINGS
HYSA means high-yield savings account. It is still a savings account. The rate can change, so don’t just chase the biggest number you see in an ad.
Look for these five things:
•APY (annual percentage yield, including compounding)
•Monthly fees
•Minimum balance or deposit requirements
•How easily you can get your money (access and transfer rules)
•Federal insurance: FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions
Purpose: emergency reserves and near-term savings, not long-term stock-market investing. No specific bank or rate is recommended here.
Take This Home
Losing everything is not the same as being lost.
