Financial Empowerment: Realign Your Finances to God’s Will by Pamela Carmichael

The Synopsis:

Are you in a constant financial struggle and juggle where there never seems to be enough? Do you wonder if God is able to or even willing to provide for you? Are you constantly paying bills and covering debt payments without seeing much progress? Are you faithful in tithing and giving but yet you cannot see on outpoured blessing?
Then this book is here for you. Financial Empowerment discusses the problems we face in different areas of our finances and shows how to manage money in a God-pleasing manner. In a simple easy-to-read manner, it provides biblical and practical solutions to personal financial management.
Financial Empowerment is a fresh look at how you see your finances and how to deal with them effectively.
Get ready to be empowered as you honor God in managing your financial resources. As you give eternal value to your money, God will continually bless you.

I received this book from the author for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

“If Christians became free of money–understand and knowing how to handle it correctly–their lives would greatly improve.” -Pamela Carmichael, Financial Empowerment: Realign Your Finances to God’s Will.

Financial Empowerment is a breakdown of the Bible applied specifically to our finances. Using Biblical truths and practical advice, this book quite literally empowers Christians to be more than just consumers and accumulators, but also encourages us to build wealth in a godly way and not be fearful of “living comfortably”.

To begin this review, I’d like to first off say that I am a firm believer in Dave Ramsey and over the years, as I’ve worked in various financial positions, I have applied his teachings to virtually all of my finances and have been witness to them working effectively. Having said that, this book has MANY of the exact same points as Dave Ramsey’s curriculum, which, you can assume, means that I was very happy with Financial Empowerment.

Why bother read this book if you can get the same content from the widely known Dave Ramsey? Financial Empowerment is for new Christians and those who haven’t heard the Bible applied to one’s finances before.

Basically, Financial Empowerment is for answering all of those “why?” questions Christians have aimed directly to their finances, and Dave Ramsey has the more practical application and examples for Christians and non-Christians alike. Why do Christians need to tithe? Why should I save money when I have the opportunity to give? Why should I give when I have the opportunity to save? These are the type of questions that are addressed in Financial Empowerment.

I really enjoyed reviewing many of the basics of handling money in a godly way and I like the straight-forward, cut-and-dry application that Carmichael brings to finances. I’ve heard from many people that Dave Ramsey’s teachings can be intimidating and many people avoid him because of that, but Carmichael brings virtually the same concepts and presents them in a gracious, simple, and easy-to-understand way. Financial Empowerment is more than a tool to make you “rich”, it pinpoints the importance of giving our finances completely to God*.

I saw that this book has a workbook to go along with it (I haven’t read it) so I’m sure the more practical applications and homework to get you moving in the right direction can be found there, but as far as just needing a mind-shift in how you look at finances and understanding how we as Christians should view our money management skills, I definitely recommend this book as a perfect starting point! I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

*Note: Dave Ramsey does teach from a biblical perspective, but he is more of a general, professional financial advisor versus a Christian finance teacher.