Learn to live within your means

“The borrower is servant to the lender.” Pr 22:7 NKJV

Here’s an idea for getting out of debt, and staying out. Instead of referring to it as your “credit card,” start seeing it as your “debt card.” Next time you have an “itch” to purchase something you don’t need or can’t pay for, that may just stop you from “scratching” it. People generally fall into three categories: (1) the haves; (2) the have-nots; and (3) the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves. The story is told of a handyman who’d been called out to a millionaire’s mansion to refinish the floors. The rich man’s wife said, “Be especially careful with this dining room table. It goes back to Louis XVI.” The handyman said, “That’s nothing. If I don’t make a payment by next Friday, my whole living room set goes back to the furniture store!” They say the average person today drives a bank-financed car, over a bond-financed road, on gasoline they bought with a credit card, to a department store to open another charge account, so they can fill their house that’s mortgaged for thirty years to the bank, with furniture that’s been purchased on an installment plan. Now, the Bible doesn’t condemn credit, but it cautions us about the use of it. “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” It’s okay to borrow for necessities, but you should always pay for luxuries. So if at all possible, pay cash or don’t buy it. “The wicked borrows and does not repay” (Ps 37:21 NKJV). It’s not wrong to borrow money, it’s just wrong to borrow money and not repay it. So the word for you today is: Learn to live within your means.

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