Spending and Debt



We all know better than this. We know that you buy only what you can afford to buy. You spend only what you can afford to spend. We know this. But we try to fudge it. We think we can cut corners and we succumb to the values of the culture. We ignore the right thing to do.

In our Freed Up Financial Living Seminar we heard that the average household in the U.S. has $10,000 in debt. We have gone from being a nation of savers to a nation of consumers in just a generation or two. We do it because “it makes us feel good, right?”

We have bought into several myths that have emerged in this culture:

1. Debt is expected and unavoidable.
2. Things equal happiness
3. A little ( or a lot) more money will solve all my problems

What we have to ask ourselves is are these myths true? I think we can probably see from our own experiences that maybe they are not. But let’s look at some wisdom from the scriptures.

“The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 5.10

So look at Myth #3, “a little more money. . .” Ecclesiastes says otherwise. Money can’t satisfy. It just can’t. It is a vain proposal. And those who pursue it, pursue it in vain.

Continuing in Ecclesiastes, verse 11 “When goods increase, those who eat them increase;” This is pretty straightforward. Oprah has been telling us this for years. The more we eat the bigger we get. But I think there’s more to this verse. We get bigger in other ways. We get proud, “puffed up.” Our lives become self-important and self-centered; even grandiose. But happiness eludes.

“And what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?”

This is the way of boats, and luxury cars and stuffed attics and garages. The only pleasure we get out of them most of the time is the looking. And then there comes a time when we stop doing even that.

“Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let them sleep.” Verse 12

The Church in America tends to teach that our attitude toward our wealth is the problem. The Bible tends to teach that wealth itself is the problem. “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom,” Jesus once said. The problem is the surfeit. It demands our attention. It demands that we look at it, think about it, manage it.

How many of us who have been in debt have thought, “If I could just pay my bills and get out of debt, how sweet would that be?” It would be paradise in comparison to the worry we have now. Now, we stay up nights thinking about money.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says this, “Do not store up. . .”

We have ignored this teaching coming and going. We have stored up possessions and we have stored up debt. We’ve got two piles going. We’ve killed two birds with one stone. We’re killing ourselves.

Jesus says don’t store up because the things you are storing won’t last and even if they did, you are leading your heart in the wrong direction. Your heart follows the treasure. If your treasure is stuff, that’s where your heart resides. And it won’t reside in other places. If you pile up debt then your heart has to worry and linger over that pile. It’s distracted. It can’t go other places that maybe it’s supposed to go.

What if you didn’t have these piles in your life? What if you didn’t “store up”?

You would be free to make God and people your treasure. You would be free to be the blessing God created you to be. A freed-up life is possible. Living with piles is not normal. It’s not God’s way.

Psychiatrist Scott Peck author of the classic Road Less Traveled defines maturity as the ability to delay gratification.

“Delaying gratification is the process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live,” Peck writes.

When we delay gratification and meet “the pain” we say to God that we trust Him. We trust that he will care for us. We don’t have to pile up our private treasures because God’s world is a world of abundance.

We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He will supply our needs.

If you want to take a faithful step today I would suggest these things:

1. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need
2. Don’t buy stuff on credit
3. Enjoy the simple gifts God gives you: daily bread, meaningful work, loving people