However, if there is anything that we should have learned from the market crash of the last couple of years is that you should never sell when the rest of the market is panicking.

While Toyota’s product flaws and bungled response deserve plenty of criticism, some of the recent warnings have been over the top. Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood even warned Toyota owners to stop driving their vehicles. Some Toyota owners are even responding to these safety concerns by looking to trade their vehicle for a less-risky option.

Unfortunately, the negative fallout from these product concerns is causing the resale values of the affected Toyota vehicles to decline dramatically. Edmunds.com estimates that the affected vehicles have seen their values fall by up to 10%.

This can be particularly troubling to Toyota owners who purchased their vehicle on the basis that they were buying a high quality vehicle which would retain its value much better than any of its competitors.

While this crisis is certainly having a negative impact on Toyota dealerships that now seem to be almost vacant, it represents a unique opportunity to consumers.

Toyota has developed its reputation by making high quality cars and trucks that consumers like to buy. Their sterling reputation and high resale values have allowed dealerships to consistently sell their vehicles at close to actual sticker price. Toyota dealers rarely needed to resort to heavy price discounting due to the demand for their products.

This trend is almost certain to change in 2010. Soon these dealerships will get the green light to begin selling their Toyota inventory again, but they will face the challenge of winning back customers who now have serious doubts about Toyota quality. Heavy discounts, rebates and incentives will undoubtedly be put in place as Toyota looks to move their stagnant inventory.

American consumers will likely be offered the best deals on Toyota vehicles in years. It will be the consumer who will possess the upper-hand in sales negotiations. And since Toyota will certainly be refocused on producing higher-quality vehicles, consumers will be purchasing higher quality vehicles at a reduced cost.

King Solomon was likely the richest man of his day. He lived in a massive palace (1 Kings 7: 2) that few could even imagine. He received annual incomes of gold, silver and other precious items. Yet none of Solomon’s wealth came because he prayed that God would bless him financially. In fact, Solomon prayed that God would give him neither riches nor poverty.

“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:” Proverbs 30:8.

However, when Solomon prayed for wisdom, God also blessed him with wealth & riches.

“Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.” 2 Chronicles 1:12.

God blessed Solomon with great wealth, but also gave him wisdom to know how to use that wealth. However, in today’s world many of us lack the wisdom we need to handle the finances that God has given us.

Most individuals will be faced with several major buying decisions in their lives – such as when they buy a house or a car. These are the types of major financial decisions that you should not only pray about, but it would also be a good idea to counsel with someone like your pastor as well.

In recent years, too many people have been quick to spend money without even pausing to consider the potential consequences. Unfortunately, Christians have been just as hasty to spend money without regard to their role as stewards of God’s money. As a consequence of hasty spending decisions, millions of individuals have found their world crashing in on them over the last year.

Of course praying over the major decisions in your life seems obvious and I’m sure many of you reading this article have already done that. But after praying about which house to buy or which car to purchase, do you pray about how you should spend the rest of your money? It’s not just the big-ticket items that you should pray about, but also the little ones.

While I’m not necessarily advocating praying over whether or not you should buy a hamburger at McDonald’s or not, it is important to remember that God requires you to be a good steward over all the finances He has given you.

Are you spending money on things that you know God wouldn’t approve of?

If Jesus were paying your bills or setting your budget, would He make the same choices that you are?

As Christians, we are striving to live as Jesus would live. This is easy to translate into our church attendance, our relationships with other saints of God, our relationship with the world, but it is just as valid with our financial lives as well. We should even be striving to spend our money as Jesus would.

I have to believe that if we as Christians would pray more about how to spend our money, we would make much better spending decisions. We would likely have less debt and more peace as impulsive buying is replaced by prayerful consideration.