7 Biblical Principles to Prepare for a 2023 Recession

For many people, worry, anxiety, and fear are constant companions: fear of death, fear of danger, fear of disease. And too often, these fears are crippling, keeping us from the life God has called us to live.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Dr. David Jeremiah. As Christians, we have been given all we need in order to face down even the most frightening, unexpected, and overwhelming obstacles in life.
Dr. Jeremiah explores fear of financial loss in this interview with Moira Brown and shares the Biblical insight for facing down this fear with faith.

Even before anything happens when the fear comes, stock markets go crazy. People pull back, they won’t spend their money.
And so the whole issue of confidence in the financial sector is the key issue.
And any analyst will tell you that when fear uh gets into the mix, there is almost no way to deal with that uh in, in the short segments.
Oh Fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him.
What a what a promise from Psalm 34 verse nine. No want.
Well, the Bible tells us that God is always sufficient for us and that even when we don’t see that and when we’re facing uh uh the not enough days that we have God is still there and we need to learn how to trust him.
That’s why I chose Psalm 37 as the backdrop for this whole discussion of uh financial disaster.
Uh Here we have practical seven. Perfect number seven practical principles from this favorite Psalm that you’ve mentioned.
37 1st decide to trust in the Lord. Is that a no brainer? It’s really si simple.
Trusting is a decision. It’s not an emotion. That’s the same.
You know, I tell people what, you know, if you wanna come to Christ, you need to decide to come to Christ.
You don’t just all of a sudden wake up with warm fuzzies one morning and decide and, and now you’re gonna be a Christian to become a Christian is a decision and to trust God is a decision.
We have a little bracelet. In fact, I have one on this morning and it’s uh we made these in all different colors.
I’ll just take it off and it’s really cool. Yeah, it has Isaiah 12 2 on it.
And here’s what it says. I will trust in God and not be afraid.
It is an incredible promise, but it’s a decision, isn’t it?
And, and when I talk about this with people, my favorite little story is David has a.
David has uh a word in Psalm 56 3.
He says whenever I’m afraid I will trust in God, Isaiah trumped him.
Isaiah said no trust in God and do not be afraid. It’s where you, it’s where you put your trust.
Don’t wait till you’re afraid to trust God, trust him now and deal with fear going forward.
And it’s a decision just like you said, do things that honor the Lord that’s putting your faith into fear when we face this, the fear of loss, it often paralyzes us.
Isn’t that true? We, we sit in a and, and, and the Bible says, trust in God and don’t stop doing the things, the good things that God has given you to do.
I find that to be a very valuable thing just from the practical therapeutic standpoint.
Well, if you give, you’re going to receive even emotionally and instead of sitting home worrying about what you’re losing, spend your time giving and it just reverses the, it takes the enemy by surprise.
You know, scientists have found studies have found that just thinking about doing something for someone else increases the endorphins and, and longevity.
Ultimately, it’s, it’s God’s design. My father was a pastor and my father used to tell me that whenever he was going through difficulty in church, he would go to the hospital and visit the sick people.
And then whenever he was fighting, he had financial trouble and the money wasn’t coming in.
We took on a new missionary. He just, he just said it was kind of like in your face enemy.
We’re gonna do this and do it right? Doctor Jeremiah. We’re down to the third one.
Dwell on the faithfulness of the. Isn’t that interesting? The Bible record should be pretty good.
Yeah, when you’re, when you’re tempted to be afraid of loss, decide to trust in God, do good things and then don’t dwell on your financial loss, dwell on the faithfulness of God.
What an incredible principle. One of the reasons I love psalm 37 is because these principles just hang out there in the open, like just to pick them off the tree.
You don’t have to. It’s not deep, it’s, it just get them.
They’re right there on the surface for you to grab hold of. David did that all through this.
He did no matter how tough it got. He’d come right back to what he knew for sure. That’s right.
God is good and now delight yourself in the Lord. right?
What a wonderful thing to uh be in the midst of uh financial loss.
Go to church on Sunday and lift up your voice and praise to the Lord God.
I remember when we went through the very serious recessions in the years past, I’ll be honest with you, we had some of the best worship we ever had really.
We, we worship God. I think better in times of adversity than we do in times of prosperity.
Would you call that a sacrifice of praise? It is indeed. You know, I’m sure that’s true.
But I think when we go, when we, when we go through the loss of material things, it forces us to look at the reality that material things aren’t real.
The spiritual things that we have are real.
And when we lose those props that we get in life, it causes us to get back to the center of who God is and how we rely on him.
Oh, so true. Dedicate your life to the Lord. Number five.
Well, that’s an again, David says, renew your commitment to God.
When you’re going through financial loss, you, you kind of reboot your life in a sense.
You, you go back to the basic thing that you’re all about and you say, Lord, I’m still here.
I still have energy. You’ve given me breath and life and, and hope and here’s who I am and I re renew my commitment to you.
And God says the work he began in us, he will complete quitting.
No, he isn’t and we shouldn’t quit on him.
Download your worry to the Lord # six, you know, in the psalm several times, it says fret, not worry, basically is fear of the future, fear of things that haven’t happened yet, but that you think might.
And the Bible says, don’t do that. Don’t live in the unlived future of difficult things.
The Bible says sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof. Live in day. Part uh compartments, day tight compartments.
This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice in it and be glad.
And I think if there’s one thing that people learn when they’re going through stress, whether it’s financial or any other kind is that you your, your periods of time and trusting the Lord are, are smaller.
You don’t trust God for a month. You don’t trust God for a week.
Sometimes it’s hour by hour, minute by minute.
And I think that’s what David was getting at, you know, trust God in those moments and, and give your life to him in that way.
Speaking of the moments, this one is maybe the toughest one. Number seven, discipline yourself to wait on the Lord.
Hardest thing in the world there is to do.
Somebody once told me there’s a little parody about when you go out to eat.
Everything’s waiting, you wait to get in, you wait for a menu, You wait for a seat, you wait for your food.
You wait for dessert, you wait for the check and they have the audacity to call a person who presides over that.
The waiter. Yeah, he’s not the waiter. You’re the waiter and nobody likes to wait.
And um but waiting is purifying. Waiting teaches you patience.
Waiting reminds you that while you live in a time zone, Almighty God does not.
He lives outside of time and God sees your, your situation and allows you to experience the time so that you will deepen your trust in Him.
You say our losses are only a reminder of the grand gift that once received can never be lost. Absolutely.
That’s it. The difference between the eternal and the temporal are what comes into place.
What comes into play when all of the things you depend upon on earth are put in jeopardy and taken away and you back away and say, Lord, I’ve lost this and I don’t have this, but I have the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, my Lord.
And nothing can touch it.