Our economy is crazy. Want a tip? Buy stock in Tums, because anyone watching the news lately probably has an ulcer.  I’m only kidding. But it seems as of late that our media has become prophets of doom. Despair spews from their mouth and infects us daily. Here are five tips for recession proofing your life.

1. Breathe

Stop freaking out. People who freak out always make things worse.  Drowning swimmers can drown their savior as well as themselves by flailing around.  If you go into an economic flail you will drown your finances.  Did you know that the average person under the age of 30 uses only 25 percent of their lung capacity? In the same way, if you’ll learn to breathe, you’ll discover that you probably only use 25 percent of your savings, budgeting and your money management capacity. Your dollars will go further if you will just breathe. Stop spending like an idiot and save your money.

2. Turn the TV off

The television isn’t from Satan, but the Bible says faith cometh by hearing. The question is, what do you want to have faith in, the doom and gloom of FOX, CNN and MSNBC or in what the Bible says? Scripture says, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.” Where is your focus? Turn the TV off and get your focus on God.

3. Get on a budget

I know you hate those words. Let me make them more palatable. Put yourself on a spending plan. Does that sound better?  Here’s some simple rules for your finances.

As long as you spend more than you make you aren’t going to have enough money. That’s real deep.  It sounds simple, but the fact is, very few Americans today are debt-free and fewer are trying to get free.  That’s what got us here to begin with. Despite what the “experts” say, we aren’t going to “spend our way out of this recession.”   Until we learn to manage the money God has given us, it doesn’t matter how good the stock market is, our economic picture is bleak.

That being said, let me lay out a simple pattern for you to follow. You are paid 10 one dollar bills. Of those 10, you need to tithe one. God gave you the money (not just your hard work… He gave you the body, air and knowledge) it just makes sense to give Him one of the 10 back. Then you take another one of the ten and you put it into savings. So we have eight left. Live off those eight. Don’t live off 12 if you have 10. Live off 8 or less if you have 10. Sometimes, God just shows out for me and I get so happy that I give him two of them instead of just one.  At which point, I live off the seven. 

There is not a lack of money, there is a lack of wisdom.

4. Keep planting

Don’t try to “get rich quick.”  Don’t play games with the stock market and be stupid with your money.  Instead, have a plan for sowing into your future. When their aren’t many crops that’s a great time to sow.

5. Pray for our leaders

I love the quote from Men In Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”  I watched a spirit of fear come over our country’s leadership in the last six months. While the problems we’re facing are real, we cannot afford to panic and pass bills and bailouts that make no sense in financial reality. Our leaders need our prayer, whether you like them or not.

To sum it all up, God’s still on the throne.  He wasn’t shocked one bit by the stock market.  After all, He knew the end from the beginning.  So why are you so shocked and panicked? Get your house in order, discover God’s way of handling money and recession-proof your life.

DAVID COKER is a 1985 graduate of RHEMA Bible College and the founding apostle of Gateway Believers Fellowship in Carnesville, Ga. He is also the founder of Breakthrough Apostolic Ministries Network (B.A.M.) His ministry can be reached at www.gatewaybelievers.