Why get out of debt?
God didn’t create us so that we could seek our own satisfaction.
I believe that God put each person down here for a reason and that reason is to bless others. In doing so, we will be blessed.
I have found in my own life that my most joyful moments often revolved around me helping or doing something to benefit another person. This was the reason for starting Free Stuff Friday. Meanwhile, my most painful, sorrowful, and sad moments were taking place when I was thinking about myself. Often times one of the quickest remedies to a struggle that we are having is to get our minds off ourselves and go do something for someone else.
So what does this have to do with getting out of debt? A whole lot actually. Your motivation for wanting to get out of debt should go beyond yourself. Sure, it will be awesome when you get to break out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and when you can buy that car with cash, but that is just part of it. God wants to use you to financially bless others! This is a very good thing because:
- Giving is one of the most fun and self-fulfilling activities you can be a part of.
- You are storing up treasure in Heaven for eternity, rather than down here for a few more years (Matthew 6:20).
- Giving is a great way to burn selfishness out of your life.
- When you give, it will be given back to you in abundance (Luke 6:38)!
You must have something to give!
If you are like most Christians I have met, you want to be able to give more. You have a good heart and wish you could give more. You really want to be able to bless people and give more to your church. But again, if you are like most that I have met, you are thinking, “it is hard enough just to pay the bills each month, let alone give to others the way I would like to.”
This is exactly why you need to get out of debt!
Imagine how much easier it would be to give if you didn’t have any credit card payments, or car payments, or even (dare I say it) a mortgage payment—this has been my motivation over the last few years! This is where you and I are headed!
It is not actually our money
Our money is really not our own. We are merely stewards of what we have been given by God (read the Parable of the Talents for a refresher.) Even if you insist on saying that you worked hard to earn it, who gave you your brain, the hands you used, and even the air you put in your lungs?
We came into the world with nothing, we will leave with nothing. It is all God’s (Psalm 89:11). We have the priveledge of being stewards. When we are slack or wasteful with our money, it is not our money we are wasting, but Gods. It is not only ourselves that we hinder but others as well.
Yes the thought of being out of debt is fun to think about, but the main purpose for our getting out of debt is to benefit the Kingdom of God.
God didn’t set this thing up so that we just sit back as spectators, and it also isn’t just about what we can do with our strength. We have a part to play and so does God. The Bible says that we are co-laborers with Him (1 Corinthians 3:9). We need to be giving to fund and finance the Kingdom of God - how much more effective are we going to be if we are out of debt?
Psalm 67:7
“God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
In the Getting out of Debt series, there are going to be 6 more articles that will walk you through what you need to do to get out of debt. These are the things I am actually doing myself and found them to be the most helpful. Let me warn you upfront, working to be debt free is NOT easy. It requires sacrifices. It requires a fight. But anything in life that is worth having is going to require a fight. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!! Don’t grow weary in well doing!!
If you ever have any questions or need encouragement - shoot me an email and we can talk.
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I found an article on Crown.org and this snippet reminded me about a few situations I have seen in the past.
In our present American society, although some pastors and evangelists make extravagant salaries or raise huge sums of money to support an excessive lifestyle, ministering brethren for the most part are generally forced to live on far less than those in the secular world. Why shouldn’t pastors’, evangelists’, and missionaries’ incomes be comparable to those in the business world? Do we as Christians believe that God’s worker is not worthy to receive an adequate salary? “It is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.’ God is not concerned about oxen, is He?” (1 Corinthians 9:9).
Based on the Word of God:
- The requirement of every Christian is to supply the needs of those ministering for the Lord.
- We are to send them out in a way worthy of God. As such, pastors should be paid as much as the average member of their congregations. If pastors feel that they are being overpaid, it is their responsibility to distribute the surplus. “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14).
- The church is admonished by God not to borrow money from non-Christian sources (3 John 6-7). The body of Christ is responsible for providing the funds that churches need to operate and to pay their staffs. “They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the
Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles” (3 John 6-7).
I have seen both sides of the situation. I have seen pastors struggle to keep up with their church because they are forced to work day jobs to pay their bills. And while working at a bank I saw the other side with a pastor misappropriating church funds to finance an extremely lavish lifestyle. It was interesting to see how God moved him out of that position.
Personally, my pastors have done so much for me and my family that I don’t think I could ever repay them. They have laid down their lives for the call and have been a tremendous example of living the life the way it should be lived.
I can’t imagine anything other than wanting them to be blessed and seeing them prosper in every area of their lives.
What about you?
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If giving is better than receiving, why doesn’t it feel like it?
Jesus himself said that it is, “more blessed to give than to receive.” I don’t know about you, but when I have been strapped for cash and needed to buy someone a birthday gift - it didn’t FEEL like much of a blessing.
I hated the feeling of being torn with what to do with my money. I wanted to be a generous giver, but when the $20 in my wallet was being pulled in 4 different directions, it made it difficult to be exceedingly generous like I wanted to be.
I am not sure where I got the idea from, but we had a very basic budget at the time and decided to create an ING account specifically for gifts and giving. This account was to be the source of all of our birthday and Christmas presents and any other giving we did.
I thought it was a good idea until we started doing it. Then I realized that it was an absolute GREAT idea and wish we had started it earlier. It instantly added so much more fun to the giving process, because the money was just sitting there waiting to be spent on others. It wasn’t getting pulled in numerous directions like it was previously. It’s purpose had been clearly defined.
Christians are called to give
We have the opportunity to give into God’s kingdom. We have the privilege of being able to give to help people. It really is a privilege and an opportunity. God doesn’t need us. He has an endless supply of finances - He can get the money where it needs to be. But He allows us the chance to be used by Him in the process, knowing that WE will benefit from being used.
As we get a better understanding of this truth, it helps us break free from our own selfishness.
God really wants to bless us!! He set the system up that it is kind of counter-intuitive - we give away, and as a result we get more. As we give, it is given back to us in a greater measure. The Bible makes it clear that there will always be seedtime and harvest. To the measure that we sow, we will reap.
Biblical giving
After we started to get an understanding about Biblical giving - we were faced with the same challenges that everyone else has. You want to give, but it is hard to find money to give, because it is all already being spent on other important things.
It was for this reason that we had to start budgeting for our giving. The Bible says that we are to “discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness” and that “we should not make any provision for the flesh.”
It is crucial that we set up NATURAL processes and habits in order to fulfill the SPIRITUAL things that we are called to do.
In this case taking money right off the top of our income to budget for giving were the natural steps that helped fulfill what God wanted us to do. It wasn’t enough that we wanted to give, or even that we asked God to help us give. We had to take natural steps (that were His will) to fulfill what He wanted us to do.
Bottom Line: Budgeting for giving was just a simple step that helped us fulfill what we were called to do.
A few things that budgeting for gifts did for us:
- Assuming we were adding enough to the account, we rarely (if ever) would need to try to find money to purchase gifts.
- It encouraged more generosity because money was sitting in the account just waiting to be spent. We agreed that it would ONLY be used for giving purposes, therefore we might as well spend it because that was what it was there for.
- It is a wonderful feeling to have money available for the sole purpose of blessing others. It makes it really EASY and FUN to give.
- It is great to have cash always available to pay for Birthday gifts, but it is even more exciting as you increase your budgeted amount. When it gets to the point that there is so much money in the account that you have to start looking for people to bless. I want to get to the point where the account is overflowing and we have to work hard to try to give it all away!! I can’t think of anything more fun!!
Before we started budgeting for gifts I never had a thorough understanding of what Jesus meant that it was more blessed to give than to receive. The main reason was that giving created a negative side effect on my finances. Since my groceries and gifts were purchased from money in the same pot, I was always torn between my desire to give and my desire to eat.
Now, instead of thinking about how a gift was going to cause me to get fewer groceries, I now am free to focus on blessing the other person rather than my grocery list.
For more inspiration check out these giving verses
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My lesson from borrowing from a friend
Probably 8 years ago when I was in love with driving cars with manual transmissions (because I had always had automatics) I begged my friend to let me drive his car. He was reluctant because he had just bought it used a few weeks earlier. He finally agreed and so I was off in his car (by myself) and not more than 200 yards later I heard a loud weird noise and the car stopped moving.
The transmission had gone out. I don’t think it had anything to do with my driving ability, but after the awkwardness of the following few hours drilled a lifelong lesson into my head: don’t borrow from friends.
Of course I haven’t followed this advice all the time. But that situation was enough to make me think twice about borrowing for the rest of my life.
For the borrower
I have always heard that the rule of thumb for something that breaks while it is being borrowed is to replace it. In fact it’s what the Bible says about it:
Exodus 22:14
“If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution.”
This is the guideline that I try to follow in the rare instance when I do borrow from friends. Before I borrow anything from anyone I ask myself, “can I afford to replace this if I break or lose it?” Most of the time, I find I can do without or I decide that I would rather just buy the item myself.
Personally, I would much rather pay a lot more by buying the item to avoid the weird situations that come up from borrowing. I still wonder if people have lent me things that I just forgot that I borrowed. I just don’t want to be “that guy” who borrows stuff, forgets to return it and then completely forgets that he ever borrowed it.
I guess I just don’t like the pressure of borrowing. I always feel obligated to treat the object better than I would if it were my own - which is a good thing. But, I just like the comfort of not having to worry about it.
For the lender
SmartMoney Magazine has 5 obligations of lenders:
- If the borrower is not aware of the value of the object, make sure they understand the value of it.
- If the borrower is careless, you don’t have to lend it.
- If the borrower loses or breaks the object, don’t insist on being made whole.
- When you are better off financially than the borrower and the object breaks or is lost - as an act of charity you should forgive the debt.
- Don’t lend to someone who can’t afford to replace it - unless you are okay with replacing it yourself.
I do enjoy lending to people, but I make sure that I always assume I will never see the object again. If I do, then it is a great surprise, but if not I don’t worry about it, because I wasn’t expecting to get it back anyway.
I used to get frustrated with lending to people who didn’t return the items that I lent to them. But, I quickly realized that it is a very common occurrence and I was either going to be needlessly frustrated with a lot of people or I could just consider it GIVING rather than borrowing. I like the giving approach much more. It makes my life easier and it takes everyone else off the hook too.
This is what the Bible has to say about it…
Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great…
Find out more of what the Bible says about lending
Do you borrow from friends?
Have you learned any lessons the hard way like me? Do you have any rules of your own for borrowing or lending?
this post was featured in the carnival of personal finance
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Oh, this is the kind of guy I like…
I found this story about this billionaire named Chuck Feeney, who from what I have read about him was a great example of someone who understands that money is NOT the root of all evil. Below I have listed a few excerpts from the story I read.
He wears a $15 watch, flies economy class and does not own a house or car. For years few guessed that Chuck Feeney was one of the world’s biggest philanthropists, secretly giving away his billionaire fortune.
Witty, self-deprecating, frugal and astute, Feeney was listed by Forbes Magazine in 1988 as the 23rd richest American alive and worth $1.3 billion, richer than Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump. He wasn’t. Four years earlier, Feeney had placed most of his money in charitable foundations.
“I had one idea that never changed in my mind that you should use your wealth to help people. I try to live a normal life, the way I grew up,” Feeney said. “I set out to work hard, not to get rich.”
Feeney kept his generosity secret for years, saying he did not want to “blow my own horn” or discourage others from giving to the same deserving causes.
I admire Chuck’s willingness to use his giftings to benefit the lives of others. Just like Rockefeller, he felt an urgency to make other’s lives better. Although Rockefeller probably spent more money on himself, he was still guided by the desire to have his life be of some benefit to the world.
I get inspired and encouraged by guys like Chuck who have a motivation for helping people and really understand the joy of giving.
del.icio.us Tags: Chuck, Feeney, Billionaire, give
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I was just reading the comments from Forbes 400 Richest Americans and Jason Dean brought up a good point about giving:
Warren Buffett gave very little (relatively speaking, of course) to charity until his recent huge gift to the Gates Foundation. His rationale was that he could grow his money more effectively if he held on to it, thus making for a larger (eventual) gift. He was right. So in a way, it could be argued that Bill Gates is making a mistake by giving so much to charity at this stage in his life. Perhaps his wealth could be better served creating more jobs and more wealth through investment, compounding his massive wealth, for an eventual mammoth gift at an older age, like Buffett.
Mathematically, I agree completely - If you have $10,000 now, you could give it or you could invest it for 30 years (at 11%) and have over $250,000 to give.
I read that Benjamin Franklin did something similar by creating trusts that kept his money invested for decades after he died to keep growing. So rather than giving away the million he had when he died, he let it grow for another 50 or so years. Then at a specified point, Ben had instructed in his trust that libraries be built with the money. You can assume that his million would have grown to tens of millions, thus being far more effective.
Scripturally, I think I find a contradiction in Proverbs 3:27-28…
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.
and Deuteronomy 18:4 (and many other similar verses) points out:
“You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep.
I think I can say with confidence that the Bible does NOT endorse the “save it all up then give” method. This is a little bit of a struggle for me, because the mathematical portion of my brain can see the enormous benefit.
I really enjoy and have a whole lot of fun giving. It is such a liberating experience and I would miss out on most of it if I waited until I was rich and old. Maybe that is why the Bible encourages us to do it now. Or could it be that God is just bad at math?
What do you think - give now, or give later?
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This was a post that I had decided not to post a couple of weeks ago, but I have since decided that maybe I should post it in light of some of the reactions from Don’t give to the poor?
I was driving home from work yesterday and I saw a man begging on the off ramp by my house. As I drove past I had this strong compulsion to go take him out to lunch and talk to the guy. This was about the last thing in the world that I WANTED to do.
But, I have been a Christian long enough to know that when I “feel” this way, it usually means that God wants me to do it. So, I ignored it. I drove all the way home and sat in my car and debated with myself about whether or not I am “supposed” to do this.
I finally decided that if I am going to make a mistake, it might as well be by doing a nice thing rather than the alternative.
Once I got back to the off ramp, conveniently he was walking to his car parked on the outer road (yes, he owned a car, albeit a junker) so I pulled up next to him and talked to him for about 15 minutes (he said he was too busy to go to lunch with me, go figure) about his situation and what was going on in his life. It turns out he was living off the government sponsored disability program and trying to get money to pay his rent and his daughter’s house payment.
I tried to encourage him as best I could and convince him that he had the power to improve his situation, but that it wouldn’t happen automatically. It seemed to me that he wanted to believe me, but for some reason he couldn’t. He seemed to be locked into the mentality that he was stuck; almost to the point that he preferred using that as an excuse. I prayed with him, gave him the few dollars I had, and drove home.
I know that I was suppose to talk to this guy, and I did my very best to encourage him, but it really saddened me to see him truly BELIEVE that he was stuck. I don’t know what happened in his past, or what people had told him all of his life that caused him to believe those lies, but it really drilled into my head the fact that people need to be encouraged.
I can recall specific moments in my life when a simple encouraging word from someone helped me immensely. I can remember bad days that were caused by things that someone said, and I can remember great days that were fueled by a kind word or a complement. I don’t ever want to discount the power of such a simple act.
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I think it is worthwhile to play devil’s advocate and look at situations from both sides and giving to the poor is an issue that most everyone will deal with at some point in their lives.
Working within the city limits I run across homeless guys often, in fact I have seen one guy begging every morning, on the same corner for at least the last two years. I have talked to him a little bit too, and it seems to be a similar situation. I have given him some food from time to time, but I wonder if I am doing more harm than good.
Obviously, the Bible makes it very clear that we are to [tag]give to the poor[/tag]. There are countless verses to support this.
But, it also says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.”
What if by giving to a beggar it was actually HARMING them, by only perpetuating the problem?
Genuine love doesn’t always do what people want, it does what is BEST for them. Just as a loving mother wouldn’t let her toddlers play with a loaded gun even if they really wanted to, maybe loving some beggars is to NOT give them food or money. I know it sounds absurd, but that is why I am bringing it up (Devil’s advocate, remember?). Could it be possible that some beggars(who are fully capable of working) would stop begging and get motivated to get a job, if people didn’t keep giving to them.
I am not sure if it is true or not, but I heard that the “Naked Cowboy” from New York City collects over $250,000 a year from basically just being a beggar with “style.” If a “normal” beggar is getting plenty of cash from begging, then why should the look for a job?
Just as with any addiction, the difficulty of breaking it is based on the length of time that it has existed. If this is the case, then giving to a beggar is “addicted” to laziness could actually be harming them by sustaining the “addiction.” If no one gave to him, he would have more incentive to find a job.
The tricky thing about this is that we never know the whole situation and we have to be led by the Holy Spirit when making these decisions. After all, who are we to judge? God knows what is going on in the beggar’s life and what will help them the most.
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.
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Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. -Luk6.38
I have read and quoted this verse many a time and yet, as always, there is still more fresh revelation to be gotten out of God’s word. I guess I never really understood the “pressed down, shaken together, and running over” part of it. Well, I just stumbled upon this verse in the New Living translation:
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.
Just like I use my foot to minimize the wasted space in the trash can, God wants to minimize the areas of our lives that we are NOT blessed in.
The blessing is going to be “pressed down” and “shaken together” in order that he can maximize the amount of blessing that he can give us. After he squeezes out all the “empty space” the blessing just keeps coming until it overflows - ironically similar to my kitchen trash can.
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