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The War Cry | MAY 2014
by
WHITNEY HOPLER
Too often, people get into debt because of the prevalent
idea that buying more means having more of what they want
in life. But in reality, the more you spend money you don't
have, the less you can have the freedom that God wants you
to enjoy. The less indebted you are, however, the more you
can experience a truly rich life � one in which you're free to
choose God's best for you, without debt limiting that freedom.
Debt compels you to devote precious hours of your life
and much hard effort to earning more money
just to pay your creditors more interest.
When your valuable God-given time and
energy is used up in this way, those re-
sources aren't available to help you ful-
fill God's purposes for your life. Debt robs
you of what God wants you to have, im-
poverishing you and putting you un-
der its control. As Proverbs 22:7 warns:
"The rich rule over the poor, and the
borrower is servant to the lender."
When you're free from debt,
you're free to use your time and
energy as God leads you.
So getting out�--and staying
out�--of debt is a noble goal. Here
are 5 ways you can enrich your
life by paying down your debt:
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you
envision how a debt-free life
would bless you.
What could
you afford to do without debt that
S
truggling with fi nancial debt is a
common problem among Americans.
In 2013, the average amount of U.S. credit
card debt was $15,270, the average U.S. student
loan debt was $32,258, and the average U.S. mort-
gage debt was a whopping $149,925, according to
an analysis of government data by the financial
information organization NerdWallet, Inc.
Less is