by Mary O. Moss
“And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions” (Matthew 19:16, 21-22 NRSV)
I don’t think Jesus was literally telling this man to give away all his possessions and become homeless. The point Jesus was trying to make is that we must place Him and His word above all other things in our lives. Money won’t buy us a place at the banquet table in heaven. It can certainly buy us plenty of wonderful things. But the worry and stress of excessive debt can interfere with our ability to live abundantly in Christ!
Jesus assures the young man in this passage [and us] that nothing on earth can buy him what he sought after the most. The young man asked Jesus what he lacked. Jesus gave him an answer that was pretty hard to hear. In essence, Jesus tells us that to live the life God has planned, we must place Jesus above anything else: above a new sofa, above a redecorated home, even above that amazing pair of shoes that have been calling your name. Spending money to buy things we can’t afford means we’re placing more value on “things” than we should.
Before we can be truly debt-free we need to free ourselves of all the stuff that is complicating our lives; all the stuff we didn’t need in the first place! Then we need to get rid of the debt that is keeping us from enjoying our life! A friend suggested selling our excess items (shoes, books, clothes, and other “stuff”) on e-bay, at a yard sale, on craigslist, or on consignment. Then use the money from selling all that stuff and apply it towards credit card balances. Cut back in other areas of your life for the time being, to get the burden of debt out of your life!
Pay as much as you can on the first card and pay the minimum balance due on each of your other cards. Then once you pay off the lowest balance card ($700 here), pay the minimum due on the Card #2 PLUS the payment you made on Card #1. So your payment on Card #2 ($35 in the example here) will become $49 ($14.00 + $35.00), etc.
Jesus wants to be the most important thing in our lives! He wants us to want only Him! He offers us treasure in heaven. Let’s face it: those ‘to die for’ shoes will wear out one day! Once the debt is gone, develop a habit of paying cash or only charging what you know you can pay off at the end of each month. Free of the burden of debt, we can begin to fully live abundantly in Christ—the ultimate fulfillment of all our needs.
Tags: credit card debt, Frugal Friday
Hi Mary,
You words couldn’t have come at a better time. We are in the midst of downsizing our house and possessions and I appreciate the encouragement as we wade through this process.