I recently read a news article that said Americans, on average, die with $12,875 dollars of non-mortgage debt.1 And it didn’t even really shock me.
I live in America, so I know this reality first hand. We’re the richest country in the world, but in truth, we are borrowing money we can’t pay back in our lifetime to maintain lifestyles we can’t afford. Sometimes we feel we have to borrow money because we’re spending every cent we make, so when the dryer breaks we have to put the bill on our credit card. Or our car is beyond repair and we haven’t saved enough to buy a new one; somehow we end up with a 15-year loan on a car we’ll probably drive for less than 10 years. Some of us are living beyond our means—we spend a little more than we make month after month. Other times, we’re simply discontent. We want something and we don’t want to wait, so out comes the credit card.
For the middle class, whether we believe it or not, much of our debt is optional, but for the poorest (especially in the Majority World) debt is a much bigger issue.
For people living hand-to-mouth, even the smallest event can lead to crushing debt. The options that they have to borrow money come with extremely high interest rates—100% over just a few months is not uncommon. Those without access to banks or microfinance institutions are easy prey for extortionary money lenders. They are often offered deals that they don’t have numerical skills to really understand.
In the rural areas where we work, farming families earn the majority of their income just one or two times per year—when they harvest their crops. When that money runs out, someone like the buyer of the crop will offer to pre-buy their crops before the next harvest, giving them only a half or a third of what they would earn if they waited. If they don’t take the deal, then the buyer could refuse to buy their crops that year, leaving them in an even more desperate situation.
In the slums of New Delhi, we work with many families who earn their living from day-labor or menial jobs. Every penny they earn goes toward their day-to-day needs. So when sickness (or any other unplanned expense) causes them to miss work they’re hit with the double financial stress of medical bills and lost income. So they turn to local money lenders to survive.
With such extreme interest rates, families going into debt end up trapped in a vicious cycle. Large portions of what they earn go to pay the interest on the loan, cutting into an income that was barely sufficient to begin with. They need more loans to survive. And thus the spiral continues. In the worst cases, people end up as slaves—sold by the money lender to a factory, where they work to pay off the debt under conditions that make it impossible to ever actually pay off the debt.
Not all debt is bad, though. Borrowing money at low interest rates to pay for education or to start a business may mean that, in the long run, you are better able to provide for your family and contribute to your community. Unfortunately, these types of loans can be especially difficult for the material poor to access. Traditional banks rarely serve them because they lack collateral, have too much bad debt, are transient, or simply live in an area where there are no banks.
Whether we’re rich or poor, the Bible warns that Satan seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us. One of his favorite tools is debt.
We’ve seen the destructive power of debt in too many lives. But we’ve also witnessed the way God can use the Church to help people who are in debt, and, in doing so, help people experience God’s love and provision.
This month, please join us in praying for all those under the bondage of debt:
- That God will reveal heart conditions that lead to too much debt: the fear that He will not provide, unwillingness to wait on God, discontentment, or unwise stewardship. Pray that those in debt will be convicted to seek God’s help to pay off all that they owe and to stay debt-free.
- Pray for opportunities for materially poor people to learn money management and biblical stewardship, so that they can make good decisions that enable their businesses and families to flourish. Pray for a mindset change, especially within the Church—that God’s people would understand how saving is better than borrowing.
- Pray for savings groups to grow in and through local churches among the poorest so that they have the opportunity to save. Pray for local churches and self-help groups to demonstrate the love of God by helping people be free of debt.
- Pray for those who are living hand-to-mouth and trapped in debt, that God will provide in miraculous ways to free them.
- Pray for money lenders to understand God’s love and grace for them. Pray that they would come to see the materially poor as their brothers and sisters, fellow image-bearers of God, and co-heirs to His grace. Pray that they would lend fairly and honestly to those in need.
- Pray that those who are materially poor will have access to low-interest loans to start businesses or to meet unplanned expenses. Pray for Microfinance organizations to stand against the pressures of corruption and to serve these families well.
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