A Word About Debt and Borrowing

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Yes, yes, I know it is very tempting to get into debt, to borrow money.  Especially with all these Government insentives for people to upgrade their cars, houses and appliances.  A few years ago, we prayed for a friend who was undecided about going to college.  We encouraged her but we did not know that she went ahead and got loans to pay her way through college.  Surprisingly to me, this was a Christian College that provided the loan.  How can a Christian college be violating God's principle of not borrowing and slaving God's people.  Especially those seeking a ministry would most probably get funded by donations which tends to be a conservative income. How can they start their ministry in debt?

Debt is the condition of being in bondage to another person.   It is to be obligated to pay back what is owned.  It is allowing a nother person to have a claim against you.

A debt creates a relationship of servitude to a creditor.

In the Old Testament, loans in Israel were charitable, not commercial.  The charging of any kind of interest to fellow Israelites was forbidden.  However, interest could be charged to foreigners.  (Deuteronomy 23:20)

Consequences of Borrowing

1. It violates Scripture.  Romans 13:8


2. It constitutes a judgment of God.  God clearly relates borrowing to His judgment upon His people for failing to follow His ways.  Deuteronomy 28:15, 44


3. It produces bondage to creditors.  Proverbs 22:7


4. It presumes upon the future.  Oh, how we have learned this the hard way.   We had bought a house on high mortgage thinking our income would go up.  The opposite happened.  We went to zero income and we had to short sale the house.


5. It gives the illusion of independence.  It allows final decisions to be made apart from God's provision of funds.


6. It evades self-examination.  When God withholds funds, there is a good reason.


7. It interferes with God's provision.  2 Corinthians 16:9


8. It removes barriers to harmful items.  James 4:3, 1 Timothy 6:9


9. It demonstrates discontent with basics.  2 Timothy 6:10


10. It devours resources through high interest payments.  Luke 16:10-11


11. It stifles resourcefulness


12. It promotes impulse buying


13. It damages God's reputation


14. It weakens personal faith.  A clear evidence of God's will can be obtained by trusting God to provide the funds ahead of time. 


15. It excludes help from others.


16. It causes overspending

My husband and I did a deep study of finances and debt with the Financial Freedom Seminar.  In our deepest financial despair, we found God's mercy and wisdom in His Word.  How we wished we had understood and obeyed His Word.  We will share some stories here when I get to it.

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Credit Score or A Good Name?

I've heard many say "I don't care about my credit."  There are different reasons why people would say that.  "It's a concept of the kingdom of this world", "you should not live by credit, so it's insignificant", "I'm a homemaker, so as long as my husband's is good, my doesn't make a difference",  "my credit is already bad anyways..."

We have been repeatedly having to make financial decisions based on this concept of having a good name.  A good name before God and man tells a lot about the kind of person we are.  The Word of God says, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold" Proverbs 22:1.

Our credit score says a lot about who we are.  Are we responsible?  Are we reliable? Truthful? Honest? Trustworthy?  Careless? Psalm 37:21 says, "the wicked borrow and do not pay".

In the area where we live in, many people have defaulted on their mortgages, including us.  Many of these are because of loan modifications that people are waiting for to be approved.  The truth is that almost all don't and won't get approved.  In the mean time people have gotten so far behind their payments that they end up foreclosing on their properties.  We faced this similar scenerio.  But we had to always remind ourselves, "a good name is to be chosen rather than great reaches."  People would advise us to foreclose, even to file bankrupcy.  Just the thought of that would make me sick.   A foreclosure or a bankrupcy is tied to your name forever.  What kind of name do we want our children to inherit?  We fought this idea because it was unbiblical and we chose to walk the hard path in our financial mud pie.

Listening to the world's professionals unbiblical advise has costs us hundreds thousands of dollars.  We haven't had the courage to add up the loses yet.  But we will, I promise, someday, because it's such a life lesson.

4 Reasons why a good name is essential:

1. We represent God's name (2 Cor. 3:2)


2. We honor our parents by it (Ephesians 6:1-3, Proverbs 28:7)


3. We pass it on to our children (Proverbs 10:7)


4. We need it for business transactions,  a good credit score says a lot about you

Beware of Compromise!  Satan wants to destroy a man's name.

What are some of the things you can do to earn a good name?

• Be true to your word.  This includes to God as in marriage vows for example.  To your family and to others

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Living Debt Free

We live in one of the most expensive areas of the United States.  People here believe is a way of life and totally normal to live in debt or at least have a home mortgage loan.  Most families have double income--that's husband and wife. 

We had been there and done that.  And have repented for not trusting God and for not following His principles concerning money.  We had always been very frugal and never had any debt other than a mortgage.  Once our first baby came I've stayed home and have not regret it. 

Where we live people like things.  You know, they like nice cars, subscriptions, nice big houses, a bout, an RV.... Is it like that where you live?

Proverbs 6 talks about debt as a very serious thing.  That's how we began to see it.  We had at that time two houses on mortgage.  My husband's business ran dry and are now 9 months with no income.  We sold our house and moved to our other one in the same area.  We are now selling this one too and believing God to live debt free.

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