God’s best is for you.

There is a popular Christian song with lyrics that go something like this:

I know a breakthrough is coming.

I know I’ll see a miracle.

I know He made me a promise.

And He won’t stop now!

I can’t help but jump, dance, and sing loudly when I hear it. I cannot unsee the things I’ve seen in my walk with the Lord. He has been too good. He has been too faithful. When I huddled on the bathroom floor contemplating taking my own life, God met me there. He met me when I had no groceries to feed my children. He met me when I convinced myself that no good, Christian man would ever want me. He met me when fear and anxiety consumed me. Breakthrough is coming in your heart wounds, pain, grief, overwhelm, stress, and fear. Your finances are no exception.

Here’s what I know to be true. In any area of our lives where there is bondage, God intends to bring a breakthrough. It’s never been about the money! It’s about living a fully-surrendered life to the Lord in my parenting, my heart, and my money. Surrendering my heart to the Lord was about relinquishing control of my parenting style, my money management, and my future romantic relationship. I remember having a revelation that much of the pain in my life was pain that was being duplicated from a prior generation. The broken family, abuse, and poverty that I experienced, my parents also experienced. I was unknowingly developing a poverty mindset. What is a poverty mindset? It is the belief that opportunities are limited, success is limited, and scarcity is certain. But that’s not what the Bible says.

The Bible says that I’m the head and not the tail; that my God shall supply all my needs; that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me; that I shall lack no good thing. We’ve got to stop operating as if there is a limited supply in Heaven. How do I recognize that I’m operating in a poverty mindset? Here are a few questions to consider:

• Do I struggle to celebrate, when others get blessed (e.g. marriage, promotion, new home, etc.)?
• Do I tend to panic about money, worrying there won’t be enough for my children and me?
• Do I secretly want others to fail, in hopes that it opens up more opportunities for me?
• Do I speak contrary to scripture regarding money?

Listen, I know these are tough and pointed questions, but the Scripture teaches that we are to sharpen one another. Take it from someone who was once hurting, broken, struggling with a poverty-mindset single mother, I have a deep desire for other single mothers to live a life full of the freedom Christ paid for, breaking generational curses, and moving into a life of abundance in all areas. Here are a few ways that I learned to break this mindset from my life:

1. Recognize that you are operating in a poverty mindset and repent. Denial is not an effective war strategy. To become effective in overcoming this mindset, you must first acknowledge you’ve operated in it. Ask the Lord to search your heart to reveal any area of a poverty mindset that has held you captive. Repent, as this is not in accordance with Scripture.
2. Watch your words. Begin to speak against the problem. The Word teaches about how there is the power of life and death in our tongue in Proverbs 18:21. Do we fully understand the power in our words? We have to begin to speak to the mountains of generational poverty. We must speak aloud the word of the Lord. We cannot continue to speak curses over our finances and lives and expect blessings to flow.
3. Create new habits. Establish new behaviors. Romans 12:2 tells us we must renew our minds. This is habitual. We often meditate on the lies of the enemy or the norms of culture and refuse to cast down those lies. What we think we often do. If we have operated in poverty mentality thoughts and behaviors, we must begin to seek out Scripture that teaches us the truth, meditate on it, speak aloud its truth, then behave in a way that is aligned with this truth. It will take practice and intention.
4. Learn to battle spiritually. See our Scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 10:4. It is very important that you recognize that the spiritual battle you are in is a way for you to take territory and break things off your life through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is such a critical Kingdom principle! It is so important that we move forward from our past and break cycles of poverty and so much more. As daughters of the King, we should not accept anything less than God’s best for us!

Points to Ponder:

• Find at least 3 Scriptures that contradict the poverty mentality. Write them down. Commit to memorizing them!