It’s pretty cliché to talk about moving mountains, but let’s face it: Most of us are facing a mountain or two right now.

And in my circle, most of those mountains are made of debt.

In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Read that again: “NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU.”

So why do so many of us struggle with getting out of debt? Why is it so hard? Why do most people give up and quit and never realize their dream of being debt free?

What are we missing?

It is very important to never look at one passage of Scripture without relating it to the rest of the Bible. And in this case, it’s important to realize that if we want to harness the mighty power of God that dwells within us, we have to give God our mountain.

So how do we do that?

Most of us are very familiar of the story of Jesus feeding the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. The story is told in Mark 6:30-44.

If you examine the nuances of this story, the progression of activity went something like this:

1. The disciples made Jesus aware of an overwhelming need that they did not have the resources to cover. In this case, they had about 5,000 hungry people staring at them and enough food for maybe two people.

Sound at all like your monthly budget?

2. Jesus asked them to gather what they had and bring it to Him.

Have you accepted that everything belongs to God and we’re just stewards of what He entrusts to us?

3. Jesus told the disciples to start organizing things for lunch, by having the people sit in groups on the grass.

Are you organizing your money every month? Are you budgeting and arranging your finances in a way that allows God to intervene and to bless you?

4. Jesus blessed what they had and gave it back to them. As they distributed the food, it was miraculously multiplied so that not only was everyone fed, but there were 12 baskets of leftovers.

Are you tithing? In Malachi 3:10 God promises, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

Doesn’t that sound a lot like what happened when Jesus fed the multitude? They went from not having enough to meet the basic need to having more than they could handle.

We have to face the fact that if we are hanging on to “our” money and “our” stuff we can expect to face “our” problems alone.

If you want God to bless your finances, you are going to have to get your finances lined up with God’s principles. And it’s easy to do that, because there are only four things to remember:

1. Give
2. Save (Proverbs 21:20, if you don’t want to take my word for it)
3. Live below your means on the rest.

This means you will have to say no to yourself sometimes. This means you don’t buy things you can’t afford, especially if you are going into debt to do so. This means you are going to have to budget, plan and work hard to keep your expenditures well below your income.

Then, and only then, can you expect to reap God’s blessings on your finances.

In Luke 7, a woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. His response to her was, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” And as we cry out to Jesus to save us, and heal our finances, we have to summon the faith not only to ask again, but also to face the mountain and order it to move.

Which brings us to the fourth thing we have to remember:

4. Work hard.

James 2:115 says, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not also have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”

Likewise, my heart breaks for the people who start on a path to financial healing and give up because “it is just too hard.” Some play the faith card and say they’re waiting on God to bless them.

My friends, God is reaching out to bless us, but “what does it profit” if we call out in faith and don’t back it up with hard work?

Most of us got into our financial messes all on our own. And we want the power of God to move us out with no effort on our parts?

God loves us, but it just doesn’t work that way.

When we work hard, commit our efforts and our resources to God and worship and pray like we never have before, God blesses us every single time.

You can have faith that if you are doing these four things, you have God’s blessings on your finances. Then, and only then, is that mountain going to move.