Debt
This article is based on a message on Jeremiah chapter 2 verses 1-19, first given by David Couchman at Wellsprings Chapel, Taunton on 29th July 2007. It may be reproduced in print or on other web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
Across the UK today, Citizens’ Advice Bureaus will respond to more than five thousand people with debt problems. More than three hundred people will become insolvent.
The average household in the UK owes about £9,000, not counting the mortgage.
In this article we are talking about debt. This is obviously a huge issue, and it causes all kinds of problems:
- It makes people worse off: most households in the UK are paying about 9% of their income in interest on their debts. So if you didn’t have those debts, it would be like giving yourself a nine percent pay rise straight away.
- It causes stress and anxiety: most people with debts worry about them all the time. Debt is one of the biggest single causes of stress in the UK.
- It causes relationship problems: a quarter of all couples argue about money. A third of all couples lie to each other about how much they spend on their credit card. Debt is one of the main causes of more than half of all divorces.
- It causes health problems: most people who’re in debt believe that their health has been affected.
These facts and figures come from an interesting web site called www.creditaction.org.uk
So it’s a huge problem. In a brief article like this, we can’t cover everything, and I am not a financial adviser.
So I would like to recommend this book: ‘The Money Secret,’ by Rob Parsons. If you’re in debt, and you want to get out, this is a very practical book. If you aren’t in debt and you want to stay that way, it’s also very helpful.
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Looking for life in the wrong place
Let me start with a question: what is it that you must have, if you’re going to have life?
What is it that, if you have it, you will feel that your life is OK, and if you don’t have it, you will really feel that you are missing out?
Don’t get all religious about this! We know what the answer’s supposed to be. But answer the question honestly in your own mind.
Is it…
- That you have a good reputation – that people think highly of you?
- A good education?
- A good career?
- Influence over other people?
- Sex?
- Things – a nice house, a new car, holidays in exotic places?
You fill in the blank. What is it that as long as you have that, you will be doing fine, but if you don’t have it, your life will feel incomplete?
Of course, if we’re followers of Jesus Christ, we know deep down that these things won’t give us life – but isn’t it amazing how we still chase after them?
Back in the Old Testament, God spoke to his people through the prophet Jeremiah, and he said this, in Jeremiah 2:13:
‘My people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me -
the fountain of living water.
And they’ve dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!’
Do you see what they were doing?
In front of them there was a fountain of fresh flowing water – God himself. But they were turning away from this fountain, and digging cisterns – digging water tanks instead. How stupid can you be? But it gets worse than that, because the tanks they were digging were cracked and broken, and couldn’t even hold water.
We're often like that: we turn away from the living God – the one who can give us life and fulfillment, and we look for life in the wrong place. We try to find it through things – through our possessions, through our appearance, through keeping up with our neighbours.
And it’s stupid. Not just stupid in some ‘religious’ or spiritual sense, but stupid in terms of ordinary life – because it doesn’t work. We all know that you can never get enough of these things. They don’t satisfy us – but we still carry on chasing them.
I came across something Eminem said recently, which has stuck with me. He said:
‘First I thought I wanted the fame, I wanted to live a better life. But then all the kids screaming. All the girls falling at my feet. It came so fast I didn't know what hit me. And it turned out it wasn't even what I was looking for.’
Get that? He’s had money, fame, success, girls, whatever he wanted. And he ends up saying ‘it wasn’t what I was looking for.’
We are looking for life in the wrong place. And this is the main reason why we get into debt. It isn’t about how you manage your money. It’s about where you’re looking for life.
Advertising
There’s a huge industry built around convincing us that we need certain things if we’re going to find life – if we’re going to be successful and sexy. Fast cars, expensive clothes, perfumes, holidays…
People have done a lot of research into our attitude to advertising. They’ve discovered that almost all of us recognize that advertising affects other people – but almost all of us believe that it doesn’t affect us.
But advertisers spend millions of pounds on those thirty second television commercials. Do I really think I’m the only person among fifty million of us who isn’t affected by them? Of course I am! Of course we all are.
Advertising works by creating a sense of dissatisfaction with what we have, and an obsession with having more, newer, bigger, better.
We live in a time when the temptation to look for life in the wrong place – the temptation to carve out our own broken cisterns - is stronger than ever before.
Easy credit
Not only that, but it’s easier than ever to buy things we don’t really need.
I don’t know about you, but two or three times a week, I get a letter from a company wanting to give me a new credit card, offering me a credit limit of anything from two thousand pounds to ten thousand pounds a pop. If I took them all, I could rapidly run up more debt than I could possibly repay in my whole life.
So we’re getting into debt because we’re looking for life in the wrong place, because the advertising industry makes it so appealing, and because credit cards make it so easy to spend money that we don’t have on things we don’t need.
Jesus told people, in Luke chapter 12 verse 15:
‘Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.’
So if we shouldn’t be looking for life in the wrong place, if we shouldn’t be letting advertising obsess us, and if we shouldn’t let credit cards make it easy to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have, what’s the right attitude to our money?
The right attitude
I want to let you into a secret: it’s simple to understand, but hard to believe and live out. You don’t need that stuff.
One day a rich businessman found a fisherman sitting beside his boat, not doing anything.
‘Why aren’t you out there fishing?’ he asked.
The fisherman replied: ‘Because I’ve caught enough fish for today.’
‘Why don’t you catch some more fish?’
‘What would I do with them?’
‘You could earn extra money. You could buy a better boat, so you could catch still more fish. You could buy nylon nets, catch even more fish and make even more money. Soon you’d have a whole fleet of boats, and be as rich as I am.’
‘Then what would I do?’
‘Well, you could relax and enjoy life.’
‘What do you think I’m doing right now?’
You don’t need that stuff.
Whatever it is: new clothes, a new DVD, a new electronic gadget, an expensive meal out with friends, You don’t need it. Your life won’t fall apart without it. Really it won’t.
In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5, the writer says:
‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with
what you have, because God has said,
‘Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.’
Did you get that? ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money… and be content with what you have.’
Why? Because God is with you, and you can trust him to look after you.
There was a wealthy man moving into a new house. His neighbour was a Quaker. You probably know that the Quakers believe in simplicity and plainness of life – a bit like the Amish. The neighbour watched as the movers carried in lots of furniture and clothes and electronic equipment. Then he went over to the rich man and said: ‘If you need anything, let me know… and I’ll tell you how you can get along without it.’
It’s back to that question – where are you looking for life? Are you looking to the fountain of living water – to God himself? Or are you trying to dig out cracked tanks of your own? Things, possessions, image, style?
In 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 6-10, Paul writes this:
‘Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, let’s be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’
Be God-centred. He’s the right place to look for life. Be content with what he gives you. There’s a huge gain in that. I don’t need the most expensive overseas holidays. I don’t need the latest mobile phone. I need clothes to cover me, and food to stop me being hungry.
But… if I take away all that stuff, my life will be miserable.
No, it won’t. Really it won’t. I’m not being super-spiritual about this. I’m being practical.
Your life may be a lot happier. You’ll be better off; you’ll sleep better; you’ll have better health, and less stress; your relationships will go better. Wow!
If we’re followers of Christ, where are we looking for life? Is it through all these things? Or is it in Jesus himself?
If we make Jesus the centre of our lives, we shall find that there is peace and contentment, without all these things.
Back in the fifth century, there was a monk in Egypt who went out into the desert so he could live a holy life. (I’m not saying that this was a good idea, but it was what he did.) He abandoned the city, and followed a very austere lifestyle.
Every so often, he went in to the city. And whenever he was there, he would wander through the bazaars, looking at all the things that were offered for sale.
One day, someone asked him why he did this, because he lived in the desert, and never bought anything. He replied:
‘My heart rejoices at the sight of all these things that I don’t need.’
So what can you do to take control of your money? I want to suggest two ‘big ideas.’ They’re both quite simple – simple, but not easy:
(1) Know what’s going on
Let’s try a little experiment:
Do you know how much you have coming in this month?
Do you know how much you need to spend this month?
Most of us can’t answer those questions.
On average we spend just five minutes a week managing our money. One in three of us don’t spend any time at all managing our money.
Know what’s going on. This is the first big idea: Take the time to get your money under control.
Spend one hour a month managing your money. It will help you to get your debts under control. It will help you increase your savings. It will help you achieve your goals in life.
Know what you have coming in.
Know what you have going out.
If you have more going out than you have coming in – if there isn’t some spare left over - you have a problem. The most important thing you need to do is to cut down what’s going out, and/or to increase what’s coming in.
I can almost hear you say it: ‘How boring is that? To spend time counting my money. What a boring life if I can’t do some impulse spending.’
Well, maybe… if it’s boring not to lie awake at night because you’re afraid of losing your house, or of having the things you own re-possessed. It’s a kind of life that makes for peace and freedom. I don’t know if that’s boring.
So get a grip on it. Know what’s going on. That’s the first big idea.
(2) Don’t borrow!
The second big idea: don’t borrow. This is so obvious, and yet apparently so hard. Don’t borrow.
Save up for things instead!
There used to be an advert for a credit card which said that it ‘takes the waiting out of wanting.’ Well yes it does – and that’s exactly the problem.
Let’s be realistic: there are a few things we have to borrow for. The obvious one, for most of us, is buying a house – almost everyone has a mortgage. Well then, the principle is, make sure you can pay your debts.
The Bible says, in Romans chapter 13 verse 8:
‘let no debt remain outstanding…’
The New Living Bible translates this verse:
‘Pay all your debts.’
The older translations used to say ‘Owe nothing to anyone.’ This implied that it’s wrong to have any debts. But I don’t think it means ‘never borrow anything at all ever.’ I think it means pay your debts regularly. If you can’t pay your debts, you have a problem.
There’s a lot more that I could say about this, but there isn’t time. That's why I’d like to encourage you to read 'The Money Secret.' It is full of really useful suggestions and ideas for how to get your money under control.
But the big ideas are: take the time to get it under control, and don’t borrow. If you must borrow, for example for a house, make sure you can pay your debts.
Remember that how we handle our money is a key part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
What to do if you’re in debt
But what do you do if this comes too late? What if you’re already burdened down by a load of debt which stops you sleeping, spoils your relationships, and damages your health? It’s too late to do anything about it!
Well, no. It isn’t too late to start with the things we’ve been talking about – get your money under control, and don’t borrow. However, as we close, I’d like to suggest three specific things to do. They’re simple things, but hard things:
Shred your credit cards.
Ouch! How can something so simple be so difficult? Yes, sure, you can think of all kinds of good reasons why you need your credit cards. Doesn’t matter. Shred them.
Start with your store cards, because they’re the ones that charge you the most ridiculous rate of interest. Shred them.
But it makes things so convenient. Oh yes, indeed it does! Shred them.
How will I do my shopping? Use cash. What if I get to the check out and I don’t have enough cash. Ah yes. Well, that’s the point. Shred your cards.
What if you have an emergency? Well, can things really be much worse than they are? Shred them.
If you absolutely can’t live without a credit card, have just one card, and pay it off in full at the end of every month, Your card company will hate you – and the way they will show their hatred is by increasing your credit limit.
Get help
Talk to a debt counseling service or an independent financial adviser. Get someone working with you to get your debts under control.
Don’t consolidate your debts! You know you see those adverts: consolidate all your debts into one easy monthly payment.
Although it sounds like a good idea, three out of five people who do this simply run up more new debts to add to their existing debts. And the chances are that you’ll end up paying out a lot more for that ‘one easy payment.’
Read this book!
In a brief article like this one, there just isn’t time to talk about all the important things you can do and not do to get your debts under control. 'The Money Secret' is easy to read, and is full of really helpful stuff. Get a copy today, and read it.
So if you’re drowning in debt, here are three things to do today to get out of it:
- Buy 'The Money Secret' and read it
- Shred your credit cards
- Get help: Phone a debt counselor or independent financial advisor
If you do these three things, you’ll be amazed how much better you’ll sleep tonight.
How are you doing as a follower of Jesus Christ? One of the best ways to find out is by looking at your bank statement. Because how you handle your money is a very practical part of following Jesus.
It shows where you’re looking for life. In the right place, or the wrong place? Through things, possessions, reputation, and style – or through God himself?
‘My people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me -
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!’
Order
from the UK
Order
from the USA
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