July 2009
In my old mind set, I was thinking pay the bills with the most consequences first, and can figure everything else out later. This was fear driven. Paying the mortgage affected our security of keeping the homes and prevented our all important credit score from declining.
Wondering how we were going to pay these large and imposing bills, fear once again reared its ugly head.
God really showed me somethings that summer on Cape Cod.
First, he told me
I have to teach you new tricks
This was a reference to another truth…
I can do things with or without money
This was all related to God showing me not to throw money at problems or think I need money to solve problems. I remember when the credit card companies kept calling day and night. I didn’t know how to handle it. But God was saying to me don’t respond to their demands for pledging money. That they were compensated to try to get “blood from a stone.” That it was acceptable in God’s sight to “just say no” to these constant requests for send us this or that money or partial payment.
I was learning another truth from the Lord, that just people people demand payment doesn’t mean they care to help us resolve the debt, settle the debt, give time to repay. More importantly, these people asking for money were part of a system of oppression. They had no authority to help us. They only had a script of making us feel bad for not making payments and guilt trip us into making some form of payment.
Ultimately, God was showing me – ask those you do business with for the grace and time and help to work things out. If they are willing to work with you, you have relationship with them and I will give you want you need to do that. If they don’t, or threaten you with lawsuits or cutting you off from future business, leave it to me and don’t worry about sending payments.
God cares about relationships, not about money
Back then, I viewed my credit score as like a character report card. That my credit score reflected my financial stewardship. We had never missed a payment on any of our debts. Our credit score was top drawer. And our reward were the lowest interest rates available.
It was getting close to the end of the month when the mortgage payments were due. I was crying out to God: Don’t you care about my credit score?? No,
I don’t care about your credit score
God later showed me that the credit score is part of a system of debt slavery. It turns people into numbers, strictly evaluating them for profitability and probability of default. My whole debt structure was like a bear trap. But I didn’t know it. As long as I had plenty of income, there was nothing to worry about. I even rationalize it as the blessing of God to have all this money in which to service these necessary mortgage debts.
Classically, as most American Christians are taught, I had a financial stewardship discipline that I followed. Tithe 10%. Credit Card debt is foolish. Car debt isn’t great. But mortgages are necessary to buy a house! Make sure you pay your bills though because God views it as wicked if you don’t! A high credit score was a reflection of righteous financial discipline, with the reward of the lowest mortgage rate.
Added to this, the Wall Street wisdom was mortgage debt is tax efficient, so max out your mortgage deductibility (roughly $2 Million) and invest as much cash that you can in the financial markets. This market wisdom is you can beat the banks mortgage rate (say 5%) with your investment rates of return (say 10%)
You are the best slave they have going
Essentially God was revealing to me that I was the best slave this debt system had. Why? Because I was so concerned with my “righteousness” being displayed through obedience to the repayment schedule. He also revealed that this was not his idea or design, that it was a demonic strategy to enslave people to the “cares of this world” which scripture shows chokes out life and fruitfulness for God. Mark 4:19.
One of the twisted truth of the devil is to misapply scriptures like Psalm 37:17 “The wicked borrow and do not repay” to guilt trip Christians like me in those days to falsely believe that either I was a bum for failing to come up with my mortgage payment, that I failed to get a job to get more income, or the lie that God had abandoned me. None of these things were true! Instead, God loves when a lender works with a borrower and even forgives debts. In fact in Israel he commanded debts be forgiven every 7 years and lands returned to families every 50 years (the Jubilee). God was taking me through the refiner’s fire to reveal the truth of who He is and how He thinks about money and modern day financial business practices.
Clearly borrowing is permitted in the scripture, but God’s way of lending is different from “money lenders” who lend at profit. God said that Israel should be the lender and not the borrower. He warned God’s people not to borrow from foreigners. Further God says that righteous lenders are to extend mercy to borrowers that are struggling to repay. They are not to treat people as “the money lenders do”. Jesus even took it further and said “lend to your enemies and don’t expect to be repaid”. It is well worth reading Nehemiah’s account of putting a stop to the rich taking mortgages on peoples properties and homes and enslaving them after they had all been freed from Babylon to rebuilt Jerusalem. This was wickedness. Read the full account in Nehemiah 5:1-3.