What is Money?
The Jews understood the power of money on the heart and life. God gave them clear instructions concerning the use and abuse of money. In fact, the Jews had an Aramaic word which personified money with the name "Mammon." Jesus used that personified name "Mammon" in His preaching. "You cannot serve God and Mammon." (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:9-13) They considered money to be like a demon with its own will and personality that can destroy our lives with covetousness. Mammon is like the proverbial monkey on your back. The more you feed that monkey the bigger he gets and the more he wants. You can never satisfy Mammon. He always wants more, spends more than he gives, and demands even more.
Money has a mind of its own. It is like a wild stallion that needs to be broken and subdued into subjection. Left to itself it is an unwieldy evil. Once dominated and brought into obedience it is a source of great blessing. The Bible says, "The love of money is the root or cause of all evil." (1Timothy 6:10 read verses 4-11)
Here is a truth. If you do not take charge of your money, it will take charge of you. If you do not tell your money where to go, it will go where it wants and leak away from you like sand in a bag with holes in it.
Money is a power tool. Used carefully it can be a wonderful tool for creating good things in life. Left in the unskilled hands of a fool it will hurt you. We all need to learn to use money. We all need to take control of Mammon and tell it what to do instead of the other way around.
What is Credit?
Credit is borrowing money from someone who has learned how to use it and accumulate it. Credit is renting money you don't have for a fee. Borrowing money for a fee is like poking holes in your already small money bag. You borrow but the loan itself cost you money that, by your own admission, you don't have. Credit is the ability to get an advance on money you hope to earn for a fee that will drain your money away and make someone else rich.
All societies have some form of credit. It is the wealthy person's way of keeping the needy feeding their own pockets. Credit is given to the less fortunate for a fee that makes the fortunate even more fortunate. During the Middle Ages it was sometimes the only way a poor family could survive in New England. But the very blessing of credit became the curse that left them unable to pay the loan back and brought them into voluntary servitude to the lender. Often children had to be farmed out to the lender as indentured servants until the dept was paid. Other times people were put into debtor's prison until they paid the debt. The Bible says the borrower becomes the servant or slave of the lender.
Unfortunately, credit in our society is used for almost everything we want. We want it now and credit lets us have it now.
Here is a secret lesson of self-made wealthy people:
Only borrow what will appreciate in value more than the credit fee. A house is a good example of a reasonable use of credit. In most cases when a family stays long-term in a house it will appreciate in value and in the end they will have three times the amount they originally invested.
A Car Debt
A car is the opposite of a good investment. It does not appreciate -- unless you don't drive it and keep it for 30 years and it becomes a classic. The longer you own the car the less it is worth. Though having a car today is a necessary evil, borrowing for a car is one of the worst examples of the use of credit. The moment you drive a new car off the lot it has devalued thousands of dollars. Why would you do that? Why would you pay someone to let you drive a car that will never be worth the money and fees you poured into it? We are not saying you should drive a gas guzzling bomb, but neither should we seek to have a new car for the sake of looking good or keeping up with the Jones'. Larry Burkett, founder of Crown Financial, advocated that the cheapest car to drive is the one you own. Whatever car you have, drive it until you can't drive it any more. Larry Burkett advocates keeping every car for at least 10 years. Don't fall into the trap of buying a new one because you just paid off the old car.
Many of us have had the experience of owning a lemon, a money pit car that costs more to repair than it is worth. The best deal on a car is to buy a late model used car with low mileage for a price you can easily afford. Don't fall into the trap of buying the car you can barely afford. Figure how much you can comfortably afford for a car payment and set your price before shopping. Stick to your sane pre-shopping price. Don't let the glitz of a car lot dazzle you into being a sucker and buying more than you can afford. Ego has a lot to do with how we buy cars. Beware of your ego. Ego puts us in debt. Don't go in debt because of your ego.
Credit Cards vs Debit Cards
Many wise financial advisors refuse to own a credit card because it is so easy to abuse and excuse. Dave Ramsey, author and founder of Financial Peace University, refuses to honor credit cards on his financial web site. He instead asks people to get rid of their high interest credit cards by paying off the lowest balance ones first, then only using DEBIT CARDS. Debit cards are like checks. You can only spend what you already have in the bank but do so like a credit card. No more excuses that you have to have a credit card in today's world. Debit cards do the same thing and don't cause you to go into debt.
What is a budget?
"Budget" is a dreaded word for most people. Why? Because we tend to live above our means. We spend more than we make. Even when we make up a budget it is so tight that the least emergency blows the budget and breaks our carefully laid out plan for spending.
Face it, we all like to spend what we earn. We deserve it. We have earned it. But it really doesn't matter how much the average American makes, we tend to spend the maximum of whatever our increased income affords. We all tend to be spenders rather than savers. We are consumers. We consume it all. The parable of the grasshopper and the ant seems appropriate here. The grasshopper is the consumer, eating up everything in sight all summer long, not thinking of winter. The ant, on the other hand, eats all he needs to have the strength to search for food and store up for the long winter months. Come winter the ant can live in luxury, but the grasshopper has nothing and dies of hunger.
Most of us think a budget makes us a slave, but really a budget is simply taking charge of your money and telling it where to go. If you could clear the slate and start all over again with no debt, other than a house payment, how would you rebuild your budget to give yourself margins? Would you then be able to live within your means? Or would your tastes, hungers, and wants exceed your income all over again? A budget is a lasso that reins in the money to fit reality. A budget tells money where to go rather than letting expenses tell the money where to go.
Tithing
Tithing is a Biblical principle that predates the law of Moses. It was a God-given principle of giving back to God 10 percent of all that we earn as a sign that He owns it all. The Old Testament never implies that the tithe is ever ours to give if we want to. The tithe, the firstfruits of our increase, belongs to the Lord - period. It is not ours now or ever. To take it for ourselves is robbing God according to Malachi 3:10. Most of us would never think of taking something that does not belong to us. We'd never steal a car or rob a bank. But we rob God when we refuse to give Him His tithe. The tithe is not yours to keep. It belongs to God. We are just entrusted with the stewardship to give it back to God. When we do, it defeats the Enemy's grip on our finances. We testify to the god of this world, Mammon, and the Devil, that God is the Lord of all of our life.
If we are living up to our eyeballs in debt we are not likely to honor the Lord with His tithe. We will take it for ourselves, justifying ourselves because we have so many bills to pay. Yet, the tithe is never our own. It belongs to the Lord. Reining money in with the tithe is the beginning of wisdom. If you rob the Lord of His tithe you will probably still sell yourself out to the bank for even more money that you cannot afford, thinking some day you will get caught up. Someday never comes. If we are not tithing, then our money is not under control. If it is out of our control, then who is controlling it? Certainly not the Lord. He has been left out of the equation. When you are in debt someone else is controlling your money, not you, and not God. Who then? Back to the place we started. It is "Mammon" who is controlling and ruling over our finances. We feed him like a monkey on our backs and he just cries for more. The more we feed him the bigger he grows, and the more he wants. He is never satisfied. God's tithe on the other hand has never grown in over 6,000 years! It is still the same for everyone in every nation and every economy - 10 percent of your income belongs to God. God promises to "rebuke the devourer for your sake" and "open the window of heaven and pour out a blessing so that there is no room to receive it." (Malachi 3:10-11)
Stop the Cycle:
Get off the merry-go-round. Making more money by getting an extra job does not usually help since the problem is not money. Spending is. Consuming is the problem. If we do not change the basic core problem we could win the lottery and in two years be right back where we started - in debt, spending too much, and living above our income.
Eat humble pie. Tighten you belt for two years to get a control on your money. That may mean you sell that expensive car or trade it in for one you can afford. Sell off some luxury items you splurged on but don't really need - that boat, RV, camper, or motorcycle. Pay off those wasteful high interest credit cards first. They alone are a huge drain on your income. It may mean cutting back on luxuries you didn't used to have like cell phones, high speed internet, and cable TV. If necessary, sell the house you cannot really afford and buy a simpler, more humble abode and gradually build equity and value as you add on to it over time.
There is a price to pay. Its name is sacrifice. "No pain, no gain."
Read These Articles
We want to encourage you to read the articles here gleaned from two sources and visit the author's web sites.
They are David Ramsey's web site on Financial Peace University www.daveramsey.com, and Larry Burkett's web site for Crown Ministries
www.crown.org/LIBRARY. Both present excellent biblically balanced views of money, debt and prosperity.
Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper
and be in health, even as your soul prospers. - 3 John 1:2
Money Issues