Real Help

Inflation. Cost of living. Child care. Health insurance. Student loans. Medical bills. Housing prices. The cost of living can all be pretty intimidating when it affects your financial security.

If supply chain issues seem to be choking your household budget, you’re not alone.

Actually, you’re in good company!

Not long before King David took the throne, he found himself desperate and on the run, fearing for his life and the future of Israel. Though he had just won a great victory in battle, suddenly circumstances took a turn for the worse:

“David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard about it, they went down there to him. Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him” (1 Samuel 22:1-2, NASB).

Distressed, in debt and discontented — Israel’s soon-to-be king hid out in a cave.

How many times have you faced a situation that left you scratching your head and wondering…

How did I ever end up here? (This isn’t where I’m supposed to be!)

When Kenneth and Gloria Copeland look back on their early years of marriage, they laugh but are brutally honest about how broke they were — “We were so broke, we couldn’t pay attention,” they often say…“let alone pay bills, pay taxes or buy groceries.”

For Brother Copeland, it was more of a personal struggle with debt. He had never been able to shake it or get free of it. That is, until he got born again and started coming across radical concepts in the Bible that helped turn his thinking — and finances — around.

Here are 13 Radical Ideas To Ponder When You’re Backed Into a Financial Corner:

1. “The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty [El Shaddai/The All-Sufficient One]’” (Genesis 17:1,NASB).
2. “Abraham named that place The LORD Will Provide [Jehovah-Jireh]” (Genesis 22:14, NASB).
3. “And you shall remember that you were a slave [to debt] in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15, NASB).
4. “‘There will be no poor among you, since the LORD will certainly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess’” (Deuteronomy 15:4, NASB).
5. “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse…to bless every work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath…” (Deuteronomy 28:12-13, NASB).
6. “…She went and told the man of God, and he said, ‘Go, sell the oil and pay your debts’” (2 Kings 4:1-7, NIV).
7. God’s Anointing is described as burden-removing, yoke-destroying power (Isaiah 58:6, KJV).
8. “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:11-12, NIV).
9. “Take my yoke upon you…. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30, NIV).
10. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me…to preach the good news to the poor…to proclaim the free favours of God profusely abound [Jubilee]” — (Luke 4:18-19, AMPC)
11. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (Romans 13:8, NIV).
12. “[God], having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debtconsisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14, NASB).
13. “Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for” (Hebrews 11:1, AMPC).

Brother Copeland remembers one particular Sunday morning, back when he and Gloria were facing a mountain of debt in those early days of their newfound relationship with God. As they were discussing their finances, Gloria said, “Well, whatever the Book [Bible] says, that’s what we’re going to do!”

And they have, ever since.

Today, according to the Hebrew calendar, we are in the middle of what Jews call a shemitah year — a sabbath year of rest AND “release” from financial debt (Exodus 23:10-12; Deuteronomy 15:1-2).

With God as your All-Sufficient Provider and Jesus as your Jubilee, may this be a reminder and an encouragement that God’s desire and plan for ALL His people is that we never be backed into a corner and bound by any “supply chain issues” of this world. Rather, that we live in the reality of…

“[His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super-abundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]” (Ephesians 3:20, AMPC).

May this be a year of coming out of debt for you!