He who loves pleasure will become a poor man. – Proverbs 21:17
After you’ve planted and planned to use your resources in a way that glorifies God, you must prioritize. You will have to determine the difference between your needs, wants, and desires. The Bible says we have only three needs: food, clothes, and shelter. If all our needs are being met, we have plenty to praise the Lord for. Wants are based on the quality of our needs—we may need a house, but we want a big house. Desires are the things on our wish list that are covered by any surplus funds. We might attend to our desires after the bills are paid, but never before.
Many of our debt problems come from trying to fill our desires by buying things. Our pleasures then lead to poverty, as today’s verse explains. We must first prioritize those things we need, and if we don’t have them, we might need to sell some of the things we bought to meet our desires in order to meet our needs.
The fourth step in getting rid of debt actually takes place while the other three are going on—and that’s prayer. Proverbs 16:3 says: “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.”
When you combine prayer with planting, planning, and prioritizing, I guarantee that you will see God invade your circumstances and turn your debt around. I don’t know what methods He will choose for you, but I know that He is able because He is all-powerful and all-knowing.
And He cares for you.