The Gift of A Financial Finish Line

Ten years ago, my husband and I committed to living on less than $100,000 per year and to giving away everything above that amount. There was just one small problem: we didn’t make $100,000 per year.

In fact, because we were in graduate school at the time, our annual income was much closer to $0 than $100,000. Our net worth was negative due to student loans. So, what exactly did this commitment even mean?

At the time, it felt mostly theoretical. In retrospect, we now see God was calling us not to a specific financial strategy but rather toward a specific spiritual declaration: He was calling us to decide ahead of time how we would serve as stewards of His resources. Indeed, we believe He was preparing and protecting us before the accumulation of money, comfort, and lifestyle creep could quietly influence us.

Sometimes God calls us to make identity-defining commitments before the decisive moment arrives. In the book of Daniel, Daniel is taken to the court of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, where he is immersed in a culture very different from that of his native Jerusalem. Yet before the major tests of his faithfulness ever came, “…Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself…” (Daniel 1:8). Daniel made an internal decision early—before the influence, power, comfort, and cultural pressure he and his friends would eventually face. His early resolution provided a scaffolding for later faithfulness.

This same concept applies to our financial lives today. Culture constantly expands our appetite for more. Whether we admit it or not, our lifestyle subtly disciples us. As Dr. Crawford Loritts says, “prosperity often puts us to sleep.” Without intentionality, more slowly becomes normal, and what once felt extravagant eventually feels normal, or even deserved.

Leading up to our commitment to live on less than $100,000, my husband and I had been asking the age-old question, “How much is enough?” But the Spirit guided us toward a better question: “How much do we really need to keep?"

Everything we have already belongs to God. We are stewards, not owners.

Everything we have already belongs to God. We are stewards, not owners. Of course, Scripture calls us to wisely provide for our families and care for those entrusted to us. But we began to see that any resources beyond that could be poured back into God’s Kingdom for His purposes.

Just six weeks after making our commitment, the healthcare startup my husband had joined unexpectedly sold to a larger company. Overnight, we received a check for nearly $500,000. We recognized this was clearly a test from the Lord: would we be faithful to the commitments we had made before we had any money? We spent some time second-guessing whether we were crazy! But by God’s grace, because we had already established a framework for spending, saving, and giving, we were able to faithfully steward those resources in alignment with the commitments we had made, which we never would have done otherwise.

We labeled our commitments “financial finish lines,” which are caps on how much we would spend in a given year and how much wealth we would accumulate overall. To be clear, financial finish lines are not a biblical command. But they are powerful tools that have helped us live more intentionally and faithfully with our finances. In that sense, financial finish lines are about formation, not limitation. They are not about religious sacrifice or legalism; we see them as protection against the bondage of our culture’s materialism.

In practical terms, our finish lines have changed over time. We prayerfully revisit them based on our season of life, number of children, where we live, and God’s direction for us. The point is not rigid rule-following, but rather aligning our hearts and resources with God’s purposes for us: that is, finding “that which is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).

God invites us to give because generosity forms us into people who better reflect his character.

We thank God that He revealed to us the wisdom of finish lines before we had money. The power of pre-commitment is that the battle is often won before the moment of testing arrives. For Daniel, it was likely easier for him never to begin eating the king’s ‘unholy’ food than to decide later to stop. In the same way, limiting materialism and embracing generosity is often easier to commit to before an expensive lifestyle is deeply rooted.

The good news is that it is never too late to begin your journey of generosity. The Spirit who lives in us is greater than the pull of the world around us! Even if certain habits or comforts are already established, God stands ready to reshape our hearts and redirect our resources toward His purposes. He’s just waiting for us to surrender our hearts—and wallets—to Him.

Ultimately, generosity is about far more than money. God invites us to give because generosity forms us into people who better reflect His character. As we participate in His Kingdom through open-handed generosity, we become more like Jesus Himself. As we reject materialism and consumerism, we find true satisfaction in Him. We have learned that this kind of worship leads not to deprivation and sacrifice but instead to contentment and purpose.

Over the past ten years, we have tried—often imperfectly—to walk faithfully within these finish lines. We have absolutely felt the ongoing pull toward more and nicer. We struggle with what wisdom looks like when it comes to spending money on our four kids. We have made tons of mistakes. Sometimes we catch ourselves seeking satisfaction in our stuff. But we remain deeply grateful that God invited us to wrestle with these questions before prosperity and comfort had taken root in our hearts.

In that way, we have learned that finish lines were never primarily about money. They are about making Jesus King of our hearts and learning to walk more wholeheartedly in Him.

Perhaps that is the invitation for all of us: to ask God what pre-commitment He may be inviting us to make today so that we can walk more faithfully with Him tomorrow.

This article was published in our Faithful Steward magazine, a quarterly publication filled with encouraging stories, biblical teaching, and practical tools to help you grow as a wise and joyful giver. If you'd like to begin receiving Faithful Steward, consider becoming a FaithFi partner.