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Financial restraint can be hard.
Today’s media is different. Big companies sink millions of dollars into finding the perfect reason for you to move money out of your pocket and into theirs.
The perfect color, lighting, packaging, smells, and sounds. Influencers that look just like you using something to solve the problem you have with something cuter than what you’ve been using.
The Scam
Young women advertising gifted goods in rented houses, showcasing their picture perfect children, spotless homes, and smiling husbands.
Handsome men looksmaxxing as they lift heavy objects, adding pounds of muscle in moments, drinking the shakes that you need and using the equipment that thwarted genetics. Wearing perfectly coifed hair in their half a million dollar home that they share with their beautiful young wife as they meal prep for a week of absolute shredding. They have everything…
Including your attention.
You look, watch and scroll back not because you identify with them, but because you want to be them. If only you were as discipline, as naturally gifted, as physically attractive…
Oh wait!
You can be…
For just a few hours of your life you can be what they are, if you open your wallet you too can be better.
The Dream
This is the dream that you are being sold. Every swipe, every like, every second you spend with eyes glued to your screen someone is watching you. Someone is getting to know your weaknesses, your likes and dislikes. Mapping every emotion, storing every smile, memorizing every muscle movement.
There’s a whole galaxy of information that you give away in every moment you spend on social media.
Every influencer shows you products that an algorithm carefully selected for you, by tracking your movements across apps, a collection of data is created to predict your every move.
Feeling lonely?
There’s an app for that.
Hungry?
Food can be delivered to you in under an hour.
Not sleeping well?
Maybe you need a new mattress. From a store in your area.
This priceless information isn’t just used to predict your movements, needs and wants, but also to suggest…
Are you craving pizza? Or have you just seen several well timed ads.
Did you need that new mop?
Or has cleantok mentioned how well it cleans compared to other mops?
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with suggestions, we Believers need to be good stewards of the funding God has given us.
So what is there to do? What can be done to protect our minds and our wallets?
The Fix
In episode 3 of the Financial Stewardship series on her podcast ‘Have You Heard? -with Pastor Cyndi’ Pastor Cyndi addresses just that.
Sometimes, we can spend so much of our money on useless things, there might not even seem to be anything to rebuke the devourer from!
But fret not, God is a good God, and a restorer!
The first thing you can do if you have been successfully marketed to is to pray.
Cry out to God!
The Bible says in Philippians 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Something is at the root of your financial woes. Pray and ask God what it is. God is your Heavenly Father, as Him how to get out of financial ruin.
Another thing Pastor Cyndi mentioned was to pray and ask God for an accountability partner. Someone you can trust to tell you in love about your finances. Like a prayer partner for your wallet!
Lastly, Pastor Cyndi mentioned something that may be hard for some of us… getting off social media.
You may be surprised at this, but it’s true. If you stop seeing so many ads, you will end up spending less. In fact, you might end up saving for something you really want!
*For more tips check out the resource ‘5 Tips for Financial Restraint’ on the resources page!
