Money Problems-Spiritual Problems?

The number of homes facing foreclosure jumped 57 percent in January, compared to a year ago, with lenders increasingly forced to take possession of homes they couldn't unload at auctions, a mortgage research firm said this past Monday.

According to a recent survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics (www.nabe.com), the combined threat of subprime loan defaults and excessive indebtedness has overtaken terrorism and the Middle East as the biggest short-term threat to the U.S. economy. 32% of the survey participants cited loan defaults and excessive debt as the biggest threat, compared to only 20% citing terrorism as the biggest threat.

In 1968, consumers’ total credit debt was $8 billion (in current dollars). Now the total exceeds $880 billion.

Why are so many people having money problems in our society today?

Why has credit card debt increased billions in the last few years?

What can we do to get out of debt as individuals and as a country?

I visit, almost weekly, with people about money problems and bills they can’t take care of. I see wage garnishes come across my desk every week on employees that I know are struggling.

It’s time, as a society, to begin to live as Christ intended for us to live. A simple life.

It surprises many Christians to learn that approximately two-thirds of the parables that Christ used in teaching deal specifically with finances. Christ never said money or material things were problems. He said that they were symptoms of the real problems. He constantly warned us to guard our hearts against greed, covetousness, ego, and pride, because these are the tools that Satan uses to control and manipulate this world. "He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’ " (Luke 12:15).

So where can we start?

If parents do not operate on a budget, seldom will the children. If parents use credit readily and make buying decisions based on the ability to make monthly payments, rather than on the initial price of items purchased, so will the children. Once married and on their own, young couples attempt to duplicate in a few years what perhaps has taken their parents decades to accumulate. In order to accomplish that goal, they use credit, as they were taught. Before long, they have numerous assets, but the assets are all tied up in liabilities.

We need to teach living within our financial realm. Being content.

If Christian families truly lived by sound biblical financial principles, they would not only be lights to show the way to financial freedom for their friends and acquaintances, but their children would grow up with the knowledge of God's principles and how those principles should be used.