A Point of Light
How much does your stuff cost?
with Rick Edwards

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:34

There are three

kinds of people: the

haves- the havenots the have not paid for what they have.

It used to be that if you didn't have the money to buy something, you didn't buy it. Today, people think nothing about spending money they don't have, to buy things they don't need, to create a misery that they don't desire. Am I right?

According to The Federal Reserve Report (August 2003), consumer debt stands at a record 1.95 trillion dollars, with more than one third of this, over $700,000,000,000 (billion), involving credit cards. Saddest of all, 56% of all divorces are the result of financial tension in the home. And 42% of Americans are at the absolute limit of indebtedness; not able to take on even another dollar into that dark cloud that hangs over them.

Let me ask you this question. Do you have a problem with debt? Not sure? Look at these symptoms:

Your required monthly payments to debt are above 30% of your take-home income.

You dip into your savings to cover daily expenses.

You don't know how much you owe.

Creditors call and write you, asking for payment.

You and your spouse fight over the finances; you resent the expense of raising children.

Some people are deep in debt because of an unforeseen health crisis or a business failure. Through no fault of their own they have been thrust down a black hole. But more often than not, debt problems come from spending money on non-appreciable assets. That's not like home ownership that builds equity; it's stuff like clothes and travel. Just more stuff.

Debt brings devastation to many people's lives.

What does God's Word have to say about this?

Alot! Here's a sampling:

Matthew 6:19

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

What we're talking about here is addiction. Webster defines addiction this way: "A persistent need for and use of a substance known by the user to be harmful." If you know that alcohol is destructive to you and you continue to drink it, that's an addiction. If you know that living in debt takes an incredible toll on you, your health, and your family and you continue to pursue it that's an addiction.

Now if I've got an addiction of any kind in my life, the way to deal with it is to take action. If you're saying, "It's OK cause I can handle it. I'm just going to try harder next time" then you're kidding yourself.

Here's some debt guidelines that we've established in our house that have helped us.

First things belong to God. Jean and I have learned over and again that a lot of things fall into place when God is put first. I believe that many people struggle with debt because they've been abandoned to their own resources because they haven't put God and His kingdom first. I've often said that 90% with you and God is more than 100% with you on your own, and that's what you are when you leave God out; you're on your own.

The first month you can't pay 100% of your credit card off, it goes in the drawer. The second month you can't pay 100% of your credit card off, it goes in the fireplace. Radical action is how to break an addiction! You must learn to live in your means not in your wants.

Most often we get into debt because we think that stuff can fill a place in our life that only God can fill. God so wants to be the center of all that we are and do. Proverbs 15:16, says, "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble with it." As lovingly as I know how, I exhort you to deal with this matter of debt. Take action, make yourself accountable, step into partnership with God, and get free of this bondage-for the blessing on your family and for the reputation of Christ.

Pastor Rick Rick Edwards is pastor of Murphy First Baptist Church.