Financial debt is a pit we all need to stay away from, and get out of if ever we're caught in it. The Bible itself tells us to do all that we can in order to get out of debt.
Are you in debt and find it difficult to get out of it? Do you feel like you'll never be able to get out of debt? If you said yes to any of both questions, I have something to share to you:
There's hope.
Hope for finding freedom from debt
Friends, did you know that debt is a form of slavery? It may not look and feel like it, but when we are in debt, we automatically (and often unknowingly) give our lenders the right over us! Proverbs 22:7 tells us,
"The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
Debt is also a dangerous trap. Proverbs 6:5 likens it to a hunter's hand when it catches game:
"Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler"
As such, we now understand that when we are in debt we are held captive. We are bound to a chain fastened in the stocks. Debt is a terrible master!
While these things are both true, it is also true that we have hope: in the Deliverer named Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, said He came to set all captives free. He said in Luke 4:18-19,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Since Christ sets all captives free, we can have hope that we will be set free from captivity to debt as well.
Does this mean I don't have to pay anything anymore?
Of course, we still have to pay our debts. It's wrong and ridiculous to think that we are now exempted from paying our debts because "Christ set me free." On the contrary, Christ taught us to give to whom it is due:
"Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (see Matthew 22:21)
Friends, because Christ sets captives free, we can now let go of the hopelessness we feel from being stuck in debt. We can now move on to getting out of debt - by paying up.
For as long as we don't pay our debts (or aren't released from it by our lenders), we will always be held in captive by it. In Christ, however, we can take refuge in the fact that God will meet our needs as well pay our dues.
