Keeping Up With the 'Christian' Joneses

From iPhones to fancy cars, Christians aren't immune to "keeping up with the Joneses."  This spirit of the world has even taken hold of the church.  If one brother or sister has it, then another gets it and pretty soon, it is the thing to do.  The got-to-have-it-now mentality shouldn't be something that Christians practice on a day-to-day basis, but sadly it is growing.  It comes from immaturity, greed and selfishness.  Not being able to save, wait or do without but rather leaning towards impulses and instant gratification is opposite of true maturity.

You wonder sometimes how people in debt, claiming to be Christians, continue to pile up massive amounts of debt in order to display to others a sense of wealth or coolness.  It smacks of high school and the faddish public school system and seemingly a lot of adults can't leave that atmosphere behind them in their youth.  If you are in debt, you shouldn't be buying a house, a car or whatever else, on more debt!  You also shouldn't be having the latest smart-phone, buying new clothes every month and going out to eat every week.  That is the old-school wisdom that is disappearing that we need to bring back!

Christians should lead the way in living debt-free, modestly and displaying the financial principles the Bible teaches.  We learned a few years ago to live debt-free and not have expenses that are not necessary.  Yet, the ones that look at us so weird are the ones that are in debt.  These same people will in later years blame the church or some in leadership because they have no money to support themselves.  Rather than placing the blame on themselves, where it goes, they live in denial of their slavery to debt and blame others.  

It is time to stop "keeping up with the Joneses" because the Joneses are BROKE!  Start practicing Godly financial wisdom according to the Word of God and don't be slave to a lender, in other words, don't take out debt or live in it.  Trust God to bless you, not the government!  Trust God to feed you, not the hard-working people of America whose taxes you live off of!  Only then, can you open the windows of Heaven and experience a true blessing from God - one that comes from doing things right and defies the spirit of this greed-filled society.

Proverbs 22:7

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.