Are you feeling overwhelmed by your financial situation? Many are weathering financial storms right now and feeling like they have dug themselves a hole to deep to get out of. But as believers in Jesus, we always have hope! No situation is hopeless. Even if your debt mountain looks so big to you that it couldn’t possibly ever be paid off. Even if you are faced with a giant sized medical bill. With God all things are possible. So we can look to Him and the financial wisdom He gives us in the Bible to navigate out of this storm.
The first thing to do is this: Trust God to help you out of this.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3: 5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Get before God and pray and ask Him for help. Don’t try to do it on your own. Tell Him that you need Him and acknowledge that you can’t do it without Him. He will direct your paths.
Next, you need to get a good understanding of current financial situation. God tells us to, “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to your herds;” (Proverbs 27:23)
This means you need to understand how much money you have coming in and how much money you have going out each month. This is an essential starting point on your journey. Think about a pilot, charting out their course for the flight. In order to get to his destination, he must know where he is starting from. And everyone should know that you should not have more going out than you have coming in. If you do have more expenses than income, you need to decide which expenses are necessities and which are the luxuries and cut back on the luxuries until income is equal to or greater than expenses.
Let me take this chance to talk to you about charitable giving. Don’t consider this optional and never cut back or eliminate your giving. In the Old Testament, God told us to, “Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;” (Proverbs 3:9) and in the New Testament He tells us, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corintians 9:7)
This is important. There is a spiritual law that works when you give. “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)
Back to adjusting your spending. A budget is a good tool to help with this and you can find many free budget templates online. Here are some examples:
Once you made these adjustments, stick to your budget. Make a commitment to yourself, your spouse if you are married and to God. Commit that you will not overspend your budget. And don’t be lazy about it but rather be diligent to keep your commitment. Proverbs 10:4 tells us, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.” And Proverbs 13:4 says that, “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.”
If you have debt, list all the balances and their associated minimum monthly payments. Identify the debt with the smallest balance and target to pay that one off first. Pay the minimum monthly payments on all the others and pay down the debt on that smallest balance. Once you have that one paid off, take the money you were paying to that smallest debt and add it to the minimum payment you were making on the next smallest balance. Be careful here. You will probably be so excited that you paid off a bill, you will want to reward yourself by spending that extra money. Don’t do it. You need to aggressively purpose to get rid of these debts. Debt keeps you in bondage. The Bible tells us that we end up being slaves to those we borrow from.
The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7)
And that we should, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law”. (Romans 13:8)
So take that monthly payment you were paying to that smallest debt and add it to the minimum payment you were making on the next smallest balance. You were already making the payment so you won’t miss the money and doing this will now accelerate the time it takes to pay down the next smallest debt. Don’t get discouraged. It took you some time to get into this situation and it may take some time to get out. But God tells us to be watchful, “that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:12) You can be debt free by applying God’s principles and through faith and patience. When the second debt is paid off, apply the same payment to the third debt and so on, until all your debts are paid off. And when your debt mountain is removed and your debt giant is slain, don’t forget to give God the glory for it.
