Proverbs 22:7 (NLT)

Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.

My wife and I moved from Columbus, OH to Raleigh, NC in January of 1997 to start a contracting business. We didn’t have the funds to get it launched, so we had to borrow the money to make the move and get started. Part of that start-up capital came from my parents…which created 6-years of awkwardness and discomfort. We thank God for the provision (and my parent’s generosity), as well as the valuable lesson that we learned and are studying today’s Dose: the borrower is indeed a servant to the lender.

Have you seen the bumper sticker that says, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go” or perhaps the one that states, “My daughter and my money go to XYZ College”? Americans are currently holding about $15,800,000,000,000 (that’s 15.8 trillion) in personal debt which includes mortgages, college debt, and credit card debt. That amounts to roughly $46,000 of debt for every single person in America. As a result, stress levels are on the rise as are all the accompanying physical ramifications, not to mention emotional and mental stress. Money problems continue to be the #1 cause of divorce in America. Our debts is destroying us, both as individuals and as a nation.

(Note: For a shocking glimpse of this reality, visit www.usdebtclock.org)

Debt turns you into a slave – not much different than the Hebrew slaves that labored under the demands of a cruel and degrading Pharaoh. Debt forces you onto the treadmill of strife as you labor to meet its demands. It doesn’t care about your weariness. It has no interest in your personal problems. It sees you as a cog in its machine – no more, no less. If you are in debt to a person rather than an institution, the servant/lender relationship is far more taxing…and ultimately, degrading…but don’t blame the lender; you most likely created the problem, yourself.

God is not going to drop a bag of money out of the sky to cancel out your debts, but He will walk with you through the process of paying your debts because He wants you…He wants all of us…to be free! I don’t believe the bible takes the position that all debt is bad, but any debt that is created by our lack of self-control certainly is. Let’s all break free of the bondage that is our personal debt and begin to walk in freedom! Let’s all say to the Pharaoh, “We are out of here!”