Now that the super committee in Washington has not given us the confidence nor produced any savings for us – Americans; we must to take our finances in our own hands. It must be surgical and a complete takeover for the only entity that can help us now is God, himself. There are secretes that we can glean from the Bible to get us the upper hand for our financial future.I am reminded of a story from the Bible in 2 Kings 4:1-7 where the debt ceiling was in question. There was a certain woman who husband died and the creditors were coming to take her sons away. The creditors identified them as collateral. She was distressed and really had given up hope until the Prophet Elisha came into her life. Elisha gave her key instructions to immediately lower her debt ceiling. He asked what she had in her house. She responded that I only have oil in my house. He told her to go and borrow as many pots as she could and pour the oil into them. She did exactly what she was told. She poured the oil into the pots until the oil stopped. The oil stopped because she had no other pots to pour into them. Afterwards, she came back to the Elisha and asked him what I shall do next with the pot of oil. Elisha said, “Go sell the oil, pay off the debt and live off the rest.” These words changed her life forever.
The revelation from this story is this: there is something valuable in your house that will immediately lower your debt ceiling. The truth is: The breakthrough of debt is in your house. You have to look at debt with a spiritual as well as a natural eye. Let’s look at it spiritually, Proverbs 10:22 says, The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. What things in your house are causing you to have sorrow? Could it be your home, car, furniture, clothing, credit cards, or expensive electronic items? If one of these items is causing an issue, sell it!
Now let’s look at it naturally. Take an inventory of your net worth. Net worth not only determines your wealth; it determines the health of your financial future. The net worth is composed of assets and liabilities. Assets include residences, automobiles, and items that have significant monetary value. Assets are those things that you own that should increase in value. Liabilities are short term and long term debt which includes bills, credit cards, real estate, and other property in your possession. To get your net worth, subtract total liabilities from total assets. There are three types of net worth: positive, negative, and sum zero. A negative net worth is the result of more liabilities than assets, which may mean too much debt. From the net worth picture, you can easily find what is giving you sorrow by identifying the specific item that impacts your budget.
We don’t have the luxury like our government to raise our debt ceilings. Creditors will come after us quicker than the government. The government has years to pay and they can even raise the debt ceiling.
I say again, “The breakthrough of debt is in your house – find the oil!”
Cedric Dukes is an ordained deacon, author, speaker, and columnist. His book, Hostile Takeover – Manifesting God’s Plan and Purpose for Your Finances, has changed the way people think about finances and has been featured nationally. You may contact him at www.cedricdukes.com.
