Proverbs 22
Vs 7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Just this week I was working with our bank and found myself so frustrated by all their demands. I was thinking, “We’ve been their customer for many years, why is it so difficult to get their help when we need it?, “As long as we’re giving them money they love us, once we ask for help, we get scrutinized like crazy.”, “Why don’t they trust us?”, etc.
And of course God brings this verse front and center for me. I actually quoted it out loud a few times in my frustration.
It’s just practical wisdom – the borrower is servant to the leader. Period.
I remember when my husband and I first got married. Each of us had foolishly racked up some credit card debt in college, so when we combined all of our finances we realized we had some problems. We immediately created an aggressive plan to get ourselves out of this mess. As any newlywed couple, we were anxious to buy our first house, start a family – I mean get a dog 
, and start the “good life”. We found the cheapest apartment we could find (not necessarily the safest), drove our old clunker cars, attempted to live off of my meager salary of $23,000 a year and planned to put all of Merlyn’s income towards our debt. We both remember those agonizing days of eating peanut butter sandwiches (I happen to love peanut butter but when that’s the majority of what you eat it gets a bit tiring), barely having enough gas money to get to work and sharing a meal at the mexican restaurant on date night – a whopping $5 dinner with all the chips and salsa you can eat!
Merlyn worked a job making only commission so checks were sporadic, but when they came in they were usually a decent amount of money. He would come home from work with his hard-earned paycheck in hand and immediately we would write a check for the entire amount back to our creditors. PAINFUL!
“The borrower is servant to the lender”
We eventually paid off that chunk of debt. I don’t remember exactly how we celebrated but I remember vividly that feeling of freedom.
So while my conversations with the bank this week are not the extreme of those early days. Any amount of borrowing instantly brings back the memories of that loss of freedom.
I hate it when I have to experience the pain of not heeding God’s principles. I guess He does know what He’s talking about!
Have you experienced the pain of not heeding this principle?
What has God taught you through it?
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This has been something I started tackling last year. I decided I would live off of rice and beans if I had to just to get out of debt and I truly don’t have much debt but I have enough! So for the past six months I have been aggressively working towards getting it paid off. Its not easy but I look forward to having the freedom I will have once my debt is paid in full!
Jenni,
Thank you for sharing your story. So many young couples like me and my wife belive in the lie that we are the only ones who are paying off debt on a meager income and driving clunkers.
I thank God for this season of total dependance on Him. In a way, our circumstances don’t allow us the “freedom” to stray from these principles.
Earlier this week my parents were encouraging me to get a new car. And immediately I felt the chains start to drag me down. I don’t want a car payment. I don’t want to owe the banks more money. My car is sufficient. I don’t want to be a slave…
I’m right there now trying to work ourselves out of debt only with one income. It’s HARD. However, things like Haiti and not being able to help financially more than I have done is just a reminder of where I need to get with our finances.
Cary and I were just talking about this the other night. We were talking about our children and the debt related to College. When I graduated from Samford I had $6,500.00 in debt for my education. I had to pay $80.00 a month for 10 years. I basically had to pay about $10,000.00 with interest. That was only for one year, I got scholarships for the rest. When I graduated I wanted to go overseas to Mali West Africa to teach some MK children over there. I was devasted when I found out that I couldn’t go out of the country because of my Student loans to the Government. My debt determined by career path. I work hard now to try to pay most things with cash and limit myself to the amount of debt I carry. Definetly a proverb to take seriously.
My wife and I have been married for 15 years now, and we spent the first 5 clearing university debts. It was a painful time, and it would have been much easier to delay things, do it slowly.
But we decided to tackle the problem head on and get free from the debt. The day we finished the last loan was a great day. We were able to live with so much freedom!
It also meant that when the opportunity to pursue what we believe is our calling to serve the poor in Africa came, we were ready. We were unencumbered by debt and financial commitments, and were able to go and work for almost no salary at all. 5 years on, we’re still here. Paying the price early on has meant that we were able to go when the time was right.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that borrowed money is free. It isnt! It may get you what you want NOW but the need to actually come up with that money from your earnings will not go away.
I guess what reading this today brought home to me was – don’t delay the painful and costly path out of debt, because you never know where or when God will open the door to serve. Be ready!
Никогда не пророчествуйте: если пророчество ложно, никто этого не забудет,
если оно правильно, никто об этом не вспомнит.
(Генри Уилер Шоу)