Gary North

You have made a list of the temptations that led you to overspend. If not, go back to step 2.

It is time to use that list as a means of escaping from your debt.

Take that item on the list which you believe was most responsible for your present condition. Make a decision to cut at least 50% of your spending from now on on that particular product line. If it is truly a nonessential item, make a decision not to buy anything else in that product category until all of your debt is gone, with the exception of your mortgage. If you bought the items new, and you absolutely have to have replacements in the future, make a decision to buy those items used at a discount store.

You have got to make a symbolic commitment that represents your new lifestyle. The best way to pick a symbol of your previous lifestyle is to make a commitment to stop spending on whatever it is that you believe was the primary cause of your sinful spending patterns. It may take an enormous act of will for you to make this decision. It may take months of willpower to stick with your promise. But you have got to agree in advance to cut whatever it was that you believe got you and your present predicament.

I am not saying that merely by cutting spending in this one area that you will be able to get yourself out of debt. I am saying that we operate best with symbols. This expenditure is a symbol of a pattern of behavior which has led you into a disaster. If it has not yet led you into disaster, it will if you do not change your behavior.

Once you select a symbol that represents what you now recognize as a sinful pattern of behavior, by cutting that expenditure out of your life, you will be saying to yourself, "I have begun to change my behavior, by the grace of God." As a symbol, it will mark your refusal to spend any more money in this area of your life. This will strengthen your willpower to cut expenditures in other areas of your life. These other areas were not the primary reason why you fell into a sinful pattern of behavior. Deal with the representative sin first, so that you will be better able to deal with the less important financial sins in your life.

If you are not yet tithing, take every dime you save from this spending change and give it to your local church.

Your symbolic step is two fold: negative (cut spending) and positive (start walking on the road to tithing).

You are going to have to learn how to budget your expenditures. This is crucial for getting control of your finances. It is as crucial to your recovery from debt as a diet plan is crucial for somebody who is overweight, and who realizes that the extra weight is a threat to his or her life expectancy. Anyone who attempts to cut expenditures without also determining which expenditures, what percentage, and for how long, has about as much likelihood of getting out of debt as a person who is obese has of losing several hundred pounds without a diet. It is not going to happen.

The reason why I have not yet introduced budgeting is because your problem is much deeper than your lack of knowledge about how to budget your money. It is highly unlikely that you found yourself in a really serious financial situation just because you did not know the techniques of budgeting.

If you have a bank account, you know when you are running out of money. The online bank statement is true: you run out of money before you run out of month. You deferred dealing with the problem, which in fact was a sin, by going into debt. You did not know the details of why you were getting ever deeper into debt, but you did know the cause. You did not deal with the cause. The budget will help you deal with the cause, but it will not help you if you have in any way held back on dealing with the cause.

Are you holding back? Are you in the position of an alcoholic who decides that he will cut back on all of his liquor except beer? If so, you are not going to be successful.

TAKING A VOW

If you are really desperate, you will take a vow. The Bible does not recommend that people take vows. It says specifically that if you take a vow, you are bound to fulfill it. God will hold you responsible if you do not fulfill it.

When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5)

But, in some cases, people who are truly desperate to find a way out of their dilemma do so by taking a vow. They ask God for a specific form of deliverance, and they promise to fulfill certain obligations to God if and when God delivers them.

If you take a vow of this nature, you must fulfill its terms. You go into extreme debt to God in order to get out of comparatively light debt to men. It is legitimate for you to do this, but it is not legitimate for you to refuse to pay God whatever it is that you promise to pay Him. You do not want to be in God's bankruptcy court. I am not saying that He would take away your salvation, but I am saying that he is perfectly willing to put you into a crisis that is worse than the one you're already facing.

If you make a vow, ask God for a major payoff. Don't take a vow for anything minimal. If you want deliverance from debt, ask for it. But do not ask for the right to continue in your sinful pattern of behavior. Don't ask to get out of debt by the means of getting rich. It won't work. You will find that if you get rich, you will be in greater debt than you ever imagined.

Ask God for the wisdom, courage, force of character, strength of will, right circumstances, and budgeting program that will enable you to get out of debt and stay out of debt within a specified time period. What do you think that is worth to God? What do you think is a big enough promise to God to gain that kind of benefit?

Again, I am not saying that you should take a vow. I am saying that if you take it, fulfill it.

I do recommend a vow in one case. If you are trying to begin to tithe, but your interest rate expenses are keeping you from doing this, vow to tithe when you are out of debt, except for your mortgage. And, to keep you honest, pay a fixed percentage of the money committed to debt reduction to tithing. If you commit $100 a month to debt-reduction, give 10% as a tithe.

For Step 4, click here.