The Way We Ask Matters

As I've been in this season of economic repentance and reformation, one thing I am learning is to not ask the Lord for money for what I want/need/desire, but to ask him for that very thing itself.

Examples:

"Lord, I'd like a water purifier as our water tastes funny." 
Answer:  My roommate found a water filter in a room where the people had left.

"Lord, I'd like to get a light by my bed so I can read."
Answer:  My roommate mentioned she had an extra light she wasn't using which I didn't know about.

"Lord, I'd like one of those double-walled cups so I don't have condensation run all over."
Answer:  After I prayed this, I mysteriously found one in the cupboard I hadn't seen before.


Granted, I don't believe the Lord is going to answer for my every want.  But He is a good God and at times He likes to spoil His children. 

Additionally, if I asked for money and felt like lack of money was the problem, I believe I would fall under the slavery of the spirit of mammon.  Money is not my provider.  Ever.  Only God is.  God may give me money to get what I desire, but it isn't my god.

If we ever say, "I don't have enough money to buy..." we're probably serving the god of mammon.  God is enough for all that we need.  In fact, it says

"He is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that we need, you may abound in every good work" 2 Cor 10:6.

All that we ever need is in Him and anything less may just be idolatry.

Debt is Always Spiritual

I thought I was doing good.  That this was the part of life I handled somewhat Ok.   But it very quickly has become the chapter of life that I didn't know I needed to write.

Like I said, I thought I was doing pretty well.  I had seen members of my family suffer at the hands of debt's death grip so I didn't want to travel that road.  If I had a credit card purchase, I paid it off.  By the extraordinary grace of God and from some incredibly righteous gifts,  I was able to get through undergraduate and graduate school with no loans.   I couldn't exactly say I was ahead, but I would tell you I wasn't in debt.  Or so I thought.  And then it came.  Those words that have set in motion a rapidly unfolding journey:

"Debt is always spiritual."

It was the word of the Lord.  It's not about what you have on paper somewhere; Debt is a spiritual transaction between two entities.

"The borrower is slave to the lender." (Prov 22:7)

My mistake came because I had somewhat of a cleared debt on paper.  The bank was happy.  The student loan people were happy.  The credit card people were....well... not happy.  They don't like it when folks borrow from them and pay back right away.

But if debt is spiritual, then it means whenever I've told someone, "Hey, I'll pay you back for that" and I've forgotten, I'm still in debt.  I still owe.  And I'm still a slave to the lender.   Whether they remember or not.

So I'm repenting.  And repenting some more.  Because God is helping me remember.

Truth is sometimes painful, but it is also liberty.