A strong sense of hopelessness. That is the way many Christians describe their inner feelings about their finances. They feel as if they are aimlessly adrift in an endless stream of borrowing. Unpaid bills occupy more and more of their thoughts. They honestly believe there is no way out of their debt dilemma.
Please note that I am not speaking of dishonest people, but hardworking, honest folks who are doing all they know to do. However, try as they may, they keep sliding further and further into debt.
The Joy Is Gone
In most homes, both husband and wife are forced to work. Yet, even with two wage earners, money always seems to be in scarce supply. For most families, the joy is gone from payday. All that remains is the Friday night ritual of rushing the paycheck to the bank so the checks they wrote Thursday will not bounce.
After the paycheck is deposited, they draw out a few dollars from the automatic teller machine for their once-a-week, Friday night splurge. This consists of a modest meal at a fast food restaurant and a short walk through the mall. Long gone are the days of shopping, for they must now pay for their past credit sprees.
For a pitiful few hours, the wage earner feels good, enjoying a small portion of the fruit of his labor. All too soon Saturday morning arrives, and with it comes the full reality of the fruit of debt. The wage earner must now face his mountain of bills, bills that were only partially paid last payday.
God Is Left Holding the Bag
Check after check is written until, finally, the last pressing obligation is paid. With this task accomplished, the stark reality comes to light. There is only enough left to barely scrape by until next payday. In the crushing pressure of having only enough to make ends meet, the tithe, which is so vital to receiving God's blessings in life, is usually ignored. At best only a portion of it is paid. This is usually justified with a promise that soon things will be better and then God will get what is His.
For the next six days, the average wage earner has to put off having any fun or doing anything special. To the Christian, the most painful part of this existence is having to say no to God concerning giving into His kingdom. This is an empty cycle that is routinely made from Friday to Friday by those who have come under the control of the spirit of debt.
Wake Up to a Better Way
Wake up! That's no way for the children of God to live! Surely this is not God's best for your life! He must have a better plan. Deep down in your spirit, you know He wants something more for your life than barely existing from payday to payday! Hear the good news!
The same God Who wants you to walk in His saving grace, the same God Who wants you to experience His miracle healing power, the same God Who wants your family to be entirely whole also wants you to operate in total financial abundance. His principles of biblical economics are clearly stated in His Word! If you follow them, they will free you of your payday blues. From them you will learn how to boldly get started on your road to a debt-free lifestyle.
A Progressive Walk
God is as concerned about your financial success as He is about every other part of your life. When you first started to walk with Him, you had to learn to recognize the lies of the devil. They were holding you captive. The world had taught you that drinking and parties were the fun way to live.
But as you progressed in your Christian walk, you realized that that kind of thinking is flawed. You began to understand that drinking almost always leads to alcoholism and wild parties open the door to sexual sins.
You found that if you were to experience God's best, you would have to say no to sin and yes to God's way of doing things. The further you walked in God's ways, the less complicated your world became. Inner peace began to grow. Much to your own surprise, you started having more fun instead of less fun.
Since the troubles and torments that accompany the world's wicked ways have begun to melt away, your life has become much more worthwhile.
This same freedom that you are experiencing in this area of your life is also available to you in your finances! Please do not misunderstand. I'm not talking about something that will force you into the lifestyle of a miser. I'm talking about something that will enable you to experience a miracle in your finances, a miracle that will transform your finances from barely making it to abundance, from not enough to more than enough.
Does such a miracle exist? Can we actually go forward in some financial healing line, have someone lay hands on us, and walk away with all of our bills marked paid in full? Before I answer that question, let us get one thing straight. No man has the ability to miraculously release people from their debts. Miracles are not from men. Miracles are given by God and received, through faith, by men.
I have laid hands on many people and seen them healed; however, I have never healed anyone. Each time someone has been miraculously healed, that person had to receive the miracle from God. The same biblical principle applies to the miraculous release from debt. Each time the miracle of debt cancellation takes place, it comes directly from God to those who receive it through faith.
A Widow Received This Miracle
Make no mistake about it. The miracle of canceled debt is taught in God's Word. One very powerful illustration involves a widow woman and her two sons.
This widow was left with a great debt at her husband's death. She was hopelessly bound until the miracle of debt cancellation set her free. Her debt was so large that her two sons were sentenced to become bond servants to the creditor. It took everything she had. She was left with nothing more than a small pot of oil. She was brought to the very door of destitution.
In her advanced years, she was cruelly sentenced to the life of a beggar. Thank God for her faith. Her decision to not seek help from the creditor proved to be the wisest move of her life.
In the midst of her desperate problem, she turned to her man of God. All the creditor could offer her was more debt, but God presented her with the opportunity to receive the miracle of canceled debt. All she had to do was exercise the faith to do exactly what the man of God told her to do.
The following verses tell us about her powerful miracle of debt cancellation: "Now there cried a certain woman unto Elisha, saying, 'Thy servant my husband is dead, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.' And Elisha said unto her, 'What hast thou in the house? And she said,'A pot of oil.' Then he said, 'Go, borrow thee vessels. And when thou art come in, thou shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.' And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, 'Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt'" (2 Kings 4:1-7).
There it is, right from the pages of your own Bible! A miraculous cancellation of debt! The scriptural account of this particular event opened with an impossible mountain of debt. It demanded payment. Even if it meant the ruination of the woman and her two sons, it had to be paid.
Then, in just a few hours, this woman was completely debt free! With this miracle from God's Word, we see proof positive that He has a miraculous solution for the debt problems of people just like you and me. What we need to do is dig into the Bible and find it, then mix it with faith and put it to work in our lives.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
