Pastor's Weekly Update

JANUARY 12, 2023

Lakeshore Friends—

Recent financial numbers don’t lie.  We’ve just come off a year with cost of living increases surging, and annualized inflation at around 8%, levels we haven’t seen in over 40 years.  It’s impacting the cost of virtually everything we buy.  We’ve also seen interest rates climb to over double what they were just a year ago, impacting the cost of purchases that require financing.  

We’ve seen stock market investments end the year with double-digit losses (the benchmark S&P 500 fell by a whopping -19.4% in 2022!), impacting the money we have available for our present and future retirement needs. 

And on top of all this, the outlook isn’t expected to improve any time soon.  Taken all together, these are difficult times for our financial security.

Despite all of this, I am 100 percent confident in this truth: even when the economy is bad, God is always good!  And His goodness extends to giving us amazing financial principles that can help us navigate virtually any and every bad economy we face.  After all, God does own it all (see Exodus 19:5, Psalm 24:1), so that means He can distribute it any way He wishes to.  And He tells us how to use money in ways that please Him and lead to optimal financial success.

On Sunday, we’re beginning a new series to help provide four important biblical strategies that can help you in these financially tough times.  No matter how bad or how good your financial situation is, I think you will find plenty of help over these next four weeks.

That’s because even when the economy is bad, God is always good!

Warmly,
Vince