How Can I Avoid New Debt?

It seems impossible to live debt-free in our society. How can I do it?
The only way to accomplish living debt-free in our society is to have a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. When you attend a House Church weekly you will go through our 52 short lessons on Finance and those lessons will help you to develope a plan to live by that will set you free from new debt.

Why is it so important to be debt-free?
Romans 13:8 says, “Owe no man anything accept your love.” When Christians owe money it is a poor witness. If we do not pay our bills on time we look poor, and nobody wants to join us if we are poor. God wants us to prosper so that we can be a blessing and glorify His Name through our actions. He does not want us to be using huge sums of money that was intended for kingdom use on paying exorbitant interest on items that we bought to feed our own flesh.

Well I don’t even know where to start.
The best place to start is right here, right now. You can’t go back and change the choices you made last week and last year. You didn’t know then what you know today. So start right now. Make a new commitment to surrender your ways to God's ways. Make a new promise to avoid new debt like you would avoid rattlesnakes.

Make a commitment today to no longer:
- Buy furniture or appliances on payments.
- Make purchases on credit cards that you can not pay off by the end of the month.
- Carry multiple credit cards with you while shopping.
- Go shopping without a list. (If you go shopping without a list satan will create one for you while you are visiting mammonmart.)
- Overflow the shopping cart when you have a nagging knot in your stomach. (That is a warning, so listen to it.)

Never:
- Take items to the pawn shop.
- Gamble with the money God has given you.
- Accept a loan with the understanding that you will pay it back someday, or whenever you can. (This opens a doorway in your life for a spirit of debt and it will overwhelm you.)
- Go to a loan shark, or take a pay-day loan.

Always:
- Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.