LAW OF rECIPROCITY

How to Stop Fighting About Money

By Aaron Little
The 700 Club

Phil Nelson achieved his dream when he bought his first business, but past debt and a growing collection of new bills put him in way over his head.

“I wanted my own business so bad that I would do whatever I wanted to do to get it,” Phil said.

Owning a business can be an expensive proposition, as Phil and Shannon Nelson found out.

“If I wanted it, I would get it just because I had the ability to get it through credit cards or loans,” Shannon said. 

“I got a little taste of what it was like to be able to go out and buy things when I wanted to and we just spent and spent and over spent, to the tune of about $4500 a month in debt,” Phil said.

As the debt kept growing, the financial burden weighed heavily on the Nelson family.

“My marriage was really, really rough. We argued, we fought. I got about an hour’s sleep a night,” Phil said.

“We weren’t getting along very well. And it was taking a toll on the family and the children and just us individually,” Shannon said. 

By 2003, Phil was left with no option but to file for personal bankruptcy.

“I thought that I would just totally fall apart because my whole life that I once had, is gone,” Phil said.

And even though the Nelsons were Christians, tithing was not a priority.

“I knew I was supposed to tithe, and every time I would hear a sermon on tithing, of course, I would move around in my seat quite a bit and be very uneasy about it,” Phil said.

The Nelsons decided to be obedient and started tithing to their church.

“The phone started ringing off the hook the minute we started tithing the business. And today, now four years later, we’re sitting with 168% increase with our sales,” Phil said.

“It’s astounding to me that no matter how many budgets I made up, whatever I put on paper, God astounded me to show me, you don’t have the funds to pay this - I do. And every month they came and they went out; and that encouraged me.” 

Phil and Shannon were also longtime viewers of The 700 Club, and they decided to make CBN a part of the budget.

“When I saw the way that they take the little amount of money that we send in and just, God just multiplies it and uses it over and over and it just helps so many people. We couldn’t do that on our own,” Shannon said. “We’ll never know this side of heaven how many people we touch with just a little bit of money a month that we were really throwing away before and now is going to use for God’s Kingdom.”

Today, the Nelsons are nearly debt free and their delivery business is experiencing phenomenal growth.

“We really tested his word and what he promises, that he’ll pour out the blessings of heaven. He will really give you a blessing that you can’t contain,” Shannon said.

“God is the one that multiplies. And when you just do what he asks you to do, he’ll just multiply everything in your life,” Phil said.

The Nelsons took a step of faith and God picked them up and carried them all the way to tremendous blessing.  God will pick you up and carry you too!  In the Christian life, blessing follows obedience!  It’s one of God’s great principles. Is God calling you to partner with CBN?  You’ll help feed hungry children, provide clean drinking water for thousands, give medical care and minister the Gospel in 180 countries around the world.  Join today and allow God to bless others through you.

'Woe to him who increases what is not his…and makes himself rich with loans.' "Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them." Habakkuk 2:6-7 NASB

If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD -- and he will repay you! Proverbs 19:17 NLT

Become a CBN partner today!

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