This is Chapter 3 of my current series.
A lot of these chapters kind of buuild upon one another and work together. Moreover, at least a few of these ideas aren't really my own original ideas, and this is another one of those chapters. For those willing to read, I hope this chapter blesses you and gives you some good things to think about.
CHAPTER 3 - A GOOD WAY TO BE DEBT-FREE
As I’ve been sharing thus far, you should already realize that the decisions that we make in our lives are spiritually minded. It was something that God revealed in the Bible that made us desire to live a life together, and this next part goes even deeper into what He has revealed. You do not need to have the same spiritual beliefs for this to make sense, so no matter where you are at spiritually, I hope that you will at least still read and consider. Interestingly enough, the previous chapter and this one have a lot in common just on a physical level as well, because accomplishing our previous goal will be a lot easier once we reach the point where we agree with what God says about debt.
Throughout the Bible, various commands are given and various wisdom is shared. For those who are willing to listen and consider, a plan for existence here upon this earth can even be revealed. As far as I am concerned, only two types of commandments can really be given, those which are arbitrary and those that have real purpose. An example of an arbitrary command would be me instructing my children to do something simply because I said so, and I do not find the commandments of God to really fit into this category. His commands seem to be more in line with something like me instructing my children not to touch a hot stove. This command is not just a “because I said so” command, but is rather given with the purpose of keeping my children safe, and sparing them from unnecessary hardships and pain. It is with that in mind that I share the following.
From the moment that God lays our blessings and curses, He puts being in debt on the list of curses (Deuteronomy 28:44), and even goes so far later on to state that those who borrow are literally the “slaves” of those that they have borrowed from (Proverbs 22:7). Much more that agrees with these concepts is also revealed, but just these two truths give us enough to consider. Making ends meet can be hard enough, but once paying interest gets added into the financial equation, everything just becomes that much more difficult. There is a reason that God tells us it is a curse, and the reason is not arbitrary.
Unfortunately, we’ve become accustomed to being in debt, and these days it is not uncommon for people to not own their houses, cars, educations, or even the food in their refrigerators. People put things that they don’t need on their credit cards and never even realize how much extra they’ll end up paying in interest, and how much extra it’ll cost them in work hours to earn the money needed just to pay interest.
The more thought that I gave to the debt bondage system, the more I realized how much sense what God revealed made. I soon became uncomfortable with even having our house loan, which is often considered to be one of the “necessary” debts these days. Too many people never get rid of the “necessary” debt, though, and often seem to “upgrade” and “buy” a new home before the last one was even paid off. Then, when they pass away, their children think that they’ll inherit the house from their parents, but the house in many cases was never truly their parents. It was the banks. For us, we wanted to leave something better behind for our children.
So, back to the children and our desire to live a life together, this goal is easiest to accomplish when less money needs to be earned. If I have no debt, then I will pay no interest. All of that time that I would have had to work to earn money that I normally would have spent on interest now no longer needs to be invested. I can “work for myself” rather than working for the bank. Of course homesteaders can take out loans and many do go into debt in order to “acquire” their property, but nobody truly “has to.”
In our search for a debt free way to own property and increase our freedoms to use the property as we saw fit, we left the city and headed out in to the country, eventually purchasing some small acreage for one thousand dollars an acre, and eventually put a fourteen thousand dollar mobile home on it. Because we had ruled out debt, we had to work hard, be patient, and pay cash; all of which we eventually did. While it may not seem like much of a house or property to some people, in the end it is “ours,” at least as much as anything can be here.
Again, being debt free is simply one of our goals and part of the path to achieving our actual goal, and it seemed like it fit well with the homesteading lifestyle too, since many homesteaders do seek a greater financial freedom and hence strive to live without debt. Whether or not you ever homestead, I would suggest that you seriously evaluate your finances and consider the extremely negative effect that debt can have, simply because I find much wisdom in avoiding it, I personally do not believe that God called it a curse for no reason.
Until next time…
STEEMIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!
