Jan and I have made our share of financial mistakes. We have a great deal of compassion for those trapped under the weight of debt. What I am about to share is not meant to come across as a condemnation for someone living under the impact of debt. Early in our marriage, we changed our thinking and began to allow self-control to take the helm of our financial decisions. That choice curbed our purchases and had us live on only what we made each month.
Several years ago, the Lord gave me a prophetic assignment, “Look at the money. Follow the finances.” When the Lord gave me that assignment, it changed how I now see finances, both personally and nationally. We began to interpret our financial reality through a different lens of interpretation. If the love of money and its mismanagement is the root of all sorts of evil, the proper use of money can become the root of all sorts of good.
I recently listened to a broadcast regarding the unprecedented accumulation of personal debt. In recent months, the amount of personal debt has doubled. The broadcast revealed a process of indebtedness reflecting three stages of a personal financial crisis. In the process, the savings of people, if they had any to begin with, have been depleted. Multiple credit cards have been obtained and are now being used to purchase food, fuel, and daily needs. The cards are being maxed out. Emerging in this desperate place is the hope that the government will offer a bailout. The latter part of the process would put a person in a place to be beholding to the State.
A recent national survey indicated that the average person in the survey makes under $50,000.00 a year, rents their home, and has kids under 18 still living at home. The government and the talking heads in the media tell us all is well, and the economy is doing fine. It’s not. Those who run our government, the institution where people will seek release as a last resort, have opened the floodgates of unrestrained governmental spending, and have indebted our nation to the tune of 34 trillion dollars. That number is climbing absent of any exercise of self-control. It’s like we are being raised by a dysfunctional parent who knows nothing of restraint.
Personal and governmental spending have traveled so deep into the pit of debt despair, that none of the debt will ever be paid off. The government’s solution is to print more money backed by nothing but thin air to prop up the value of its currency. At some point, a collapse will occur.
When Scripture defined the fruit of the Spirit, self-control was listed as the last in the list of fruits. It was listed as a foundation that allows all the other measures of spiritual fruitfulness to flourish. If you are living under the weight of hopeless debt, the Lord will be your only true source of rescue. The Lord can forgive any of our sins if we come to Him and make our plea for rescue.
No matter how deeply one might find themselves living under the weight of overwhelming debt, our God is still our Redeemer even while living under the weight of our self-induced debt trauma. “He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas” (Psalm 102: 17). With God, there is always hope.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
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