Hope for your financial life and beyond

Should I Borrow Money to Get What I Want?

There is no denying it. Credit is available everywhere. Our cultures screams “Have It Now!” to us at every turn. “Borrow money now to get what you want!” people say.

We expect fast food within 5 miborrow moneynutes or less in the drive-thru.  We want to make quick money for as little work as possible. And we are first in line for the newest technology gadget the day it is released. Simply put, most of the time we can’t wait. We gotta have it.

This “Have It Now” culture has skewed our reasoning ability, in that it has masterfully helped us change our “wants” into “needs.” Our brains have reclassified the things that we desire to have into things that are priorities. And in some cases, our wants are taking precedence over issues that are needs.

So why don’t we just go ahead and borrow the money to get the things we want? Seems like a logical step. However, blindly borrowing money to satisfy all your needs can cause great damage to finances, as well as your mental and emotional life.

Borrow Money to Get What We Want

Think through all of your major purchases in the past year. How many of them would truly be classified as “needs?”

Put these two things together – getting what we want quickly and “wants vs. needs” – and a real problem begins to arise for most everyone in society. We don’t have the money to pay for these items!

We can’t resist the lure of the purchase. So we have to find a way to get it. Lucky for us the “Have It Now” culture knew this would be a dilemma. So it created a special financial system that would allow us to get borrow money up front to buy our precious item and then pay the system back over time. They called it “Getting a Loan.” I’ll just borrow money. What a cool concept! Then I can have everything I want (and need).

Why can’t we recognize the difference between a want and a need? What has happened to the concept of saving in advance until you could afford it? Better yet, for those of us who integrate faith into our life, whatever happened to relying on God to meet your needs?

God’s Blessing On Israel

In the Old Testament portion of the Bible, God told the nation of Israel He would provide for them. Deuteronomy 15:6 states,

  • “For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.”

And again he tells them in Deuteronomy 28:11-12,

  •  “And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”

Notice what God was going to do for Israel:

  1.  He would follow through with His promise to bless them.
  2. They would have plenty of goods to meet their needs.
  3. Their livestock would increase and their ground produce food.
  4. His fine and excellent treasures would be bestowed on them.
  5. God would send the rain at the appropriate times of each season.
  6. All the works of their hand would be blessed.

So they were to rely on God to meet their needs. He was going to provide for them. And if you read on, it becomes clear that God did not want them going to an outside source because at the end of each of the above verses He says, “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”

The Lender Holds the Power

God did not want another nation to hold power over His people. He didn’t want another nation telling Israel what to do. Think of the impact on their culture if Israel decided to borrow money from their neighbors instead of relying on God to meet their needs. The other nations would have been able to dictate Israel’s terms of financial repayment.

They could have bargained for any form of repayment for their loan. They could have said, “We will lend you money if…

“…you repay us with 10% interest.”

“…we are allowed to marry your daughters.”

“…you give us 1/5th of your crop each year.”

“…you let us enlist your sons in our army for five years.”

“…your people will worship our gods as well.”

I listed some outrageous repayment terms to make a point. You can see how the lender in all situations holds the power to control the borrower. God did not want the surrounding nations to be able to dictate the financial, spiritual, social and family lives of His people. Thus he warned them twice not to borrow. He knew the problems that would arise if they chose to take that route.

And perhaps the more important lesson is that God wants us put our ultimate trust in Him to provide for our needs. And we can rest assured that He will fulfill his promise to send the blessings when we work diligently with our hands.

Leave a Comment or Answer a Question Below: What challenges have you faced because you chose to borrow money for a purchase? Do you think it’s OK to borrow money to get what you want? In your opinion, when is it wrong to borrow money? 

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Comments

  1. Emmanuel Nwaiwu says

    Great message here. I pray the last strength of mine will not yield to borrowing. Thank you Brian. When it comes to you and you have to please let the pen flow for God is still working wonders and forever. stay positive. You’re blessed.

  2. This is good information. I have truly been blessed by this as I had astrayed from depending on God and created an excessive amount of debt. Thank you for the reminder that God is my source for all areas of my life.

    • Glad to hear this spoke to you Candice. Best of luck with the debt. Just keep pecking away at it slowly. Your efforts will be worth it in the end.

  3. This is a great piece Brian. It has really blessed me. May you head never lack oil.

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