Run Baby, Run!! (Proverbs 6 (part 1))

My son, if you have put up security (gotten into debt)...then do this...Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.  Proverbs 6:1-5

I'm going to spend several days on Proverbs 6 because there is so much to learn from just the first few verses of this chapter.  Today in Part 1, we are going to talk about God's way to get out of debt.

It's easy to wander into debt.  If you're like I was; you start out with a credit card for "emergencies".  Then you see a surround sound system you NEED for your dorm room so, "just this once", you put it on your emergency only credit card.  Before you know it, you've somehow wandered up to the (Thank God only $1,000 in my case) credit limit.

Or maybe you see a shiny new car with that intoxicating smell of new leather and plastic that makes you despise the car you're driving (which is perfectly capable of getting you to and from where you need to go).  Before you know it, you've been approved for "great financing terms" and have a brand new car payment of $471 per month (average in the U.S. as of March 2014) for the next 6 years.  About a month later, after you've shown all your friends and you make your very first of 72 payment, you realize it's just another car.

Or maybe you find your "dream house" and although it was higher than the amount you promised yourself you wouldn't go over, your Realtor took you to see it anyway.  You fall in love and get into a loan the bank said you could afford based on your income.  They did however forget that you had credit card debt up to your eyeballs, 2 car payments on vehicles that are worth less than you owe and $100,000 in student loans for a degree that pays an average of $25,000 per year...but, hey, your credit score was great so why not?

Maybe your weakness takes another form of "stuff".  But, the point is, there is and will always be someone out there pushing newer, bigger, faster, etc. and even more people out there willing to help you wander deeper into the abyss of debt.

So, we've decided we don't want to be in debt anymore and want to know how.  Can you just turn around, face the opposite direction and wander at the same pace out of the mess you've made?  Absolutely NOT!  You will NEVER get out this way.  

Proverbs 6 tells us that you've got to run like a Gazelle running from a Cheetah.  You've got to:

• STOP going deeper into debt!

• START living on a budget that balances each month!

• WORK an extra job or some overtime!

• SELL some of the junk you thought you needed!
• PRAY that God will bless your efforts and keep you focused!

The ONLY two options are:

1. Stay where you are and become the Cheetah's lunch
2. RUN. FOR. YOUR. LIFE.  You may trip and fall. Maybe even get a few bites.  But for the love of Freedom...KEEP RUNNING!

If you want this bad enough, you can do it.  If you like the status quo of your dumb decisions and aren't willing to sacrifice in the short term to make your long term GREAT, you'll never make it.  If, however, you are utterly disgusted and ready to make a change, you can do it!