May 26, 2026

Ep. 098 - Is Debt a Sin? A Biblical Perspective on Money, Anxiety, and Stewardship

Debt is one of the most normalized financial realitiesin modern life. Credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, andfinancing options are everywhere, often presented as ordinary tools forachieving comfort, convenience, and success. But while debt may be culturallyaccepted, Scripture consistently urges believers to approach it with caution,wisdom, and humility.

In this episode, we explored debt not merely as afinancial issue, but as a discipleship issue. The way we handle money revealsmuch about our hearts, our priorities, and ultimately where we place our trust.

Show Notes

Debt Reveals What We Value

One of the most important ideas discussed was that debtoften exposes our desires in ways ordinary spending does not. Debt allows us topursue something we cannot currently afford, often fueled by the assumptionthat future income, future stability, or future opportunities will always bethere.

That assumption can quietly shape the way we live. Itcan lead us to pursue lifestyles, comforts, or luxuries that God never intendedfor us to carry.

The conversation referenced the stewardship frameworkoften taught by Ron Blue: money can be used to live, give, owe, and grow. Whendebt consumes a larger portion of our finances, it inevitably limits ourability to give generously, save wisely, and live with margin.

Debt is rarely just about numbers on a spreadsheet. Itoften reveals deeper questions:

  • What am I chasing?
  • What do I believe will satisfy me?
  • Am I content with what God has provided?
  • Am I trusting God, or am I trusting financial projections and future     income?

The Connection Between Debt andAnxiety

While debt is not the sole cause of anxiety, there isoften a clear relationship between the amount of debt someone carries and theamount of stress they experience.

The more financially leveraged a person becomes, themore pressure they often feel to maintain income, protect their lifestyle, andavoid financial disruption. Debt creates obligations that can shape dailydecisions, relationships, and emotional health.

Proverbs 22:7 states:

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower isslave to the lender.”

This verse is not merely speaking mathematically. It isdescribing the relational and psychological reality of debt. When we borrow, weplace ourselves under obligation to another party. Even when lenders are kindor understanding, debt can still create a sense of weight and responsibilitythat impacts peace and freedom.

Lifestyle Inflation and the Pursuit ofMore

The episode also explored how modern culturecontinually pushes people toward larger lifestyles and higher spending. Biggerhomes, newer cars, upgraded experiences, and constant comparison can quietlyredefine what we believe is “normal.”

A powerful quote from C.S. Lewis in MereChristianity was highlighted:

“If our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements,etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as ours, weare probably giving away too little.”

That statement challenges many of our assumptions. Theissue is not that comfort or enjoyment are inherently sinful. The issue iswhether we are seeking fulfillment in possessions and experiences rather thanin God Himself.

Scripture consistently calls believers towardcontentment, generosity, and eternal perspective rather than endlessaccumulation.

Is All Debt Sinful?

The discussion made an important distinction: Scripturewarns strongly against debt, but it does not explicitly forbid every form ofborrowing.

There are situations where debt may be necessary orwise when approached carefully and humbly. Mortgages, business loans, orhelping a fellow believer through lending can sometimes be appropriate.However, the key is entering debt soberly, prayerfully, and strategically.

Several practical principles were emphasized:

  • Make debt rare.
  • Make debt strategic.
  • Make debt short-term whenever possible.
  • Build financial margin.
  • Avoid living at the absolute limit of what lenders approve.
  • Seek counsel from wise believers before making major financial     commitments.

Debt becomes especially dangerous when it removesflexibility from our lives or limits our ability to respond to God’s leading.

Debt Can Limit Freedom and Obedience

One of the most compelling parts of the conversationcentered on how debt can tie people to certain jobs, locations, or lifestyles.

When obligations become too heavy, it can becomedifficult to respond freely if God calls someone to make a change, pursueministry opportunities, downsize, relocate, or live more generously.

Debt is not merely about interest rates and monthlypayments. It affects flexibility, peace, and freedom.

This is why margin matters so deeply. Margin providesroom to weather hardship, adjust to changing circumstances, and respond toopportunities without being crushed financially.

Healing Begins With Honesty

The episode closed with practical encouragement forthose already struggling with debt.

The first step is honesty. Debt often thrives insecrecy, shame, and isolation. Confession and transparency with spouses,trusted friends, mentors, or church leaders can begin the process of healing.

The church should be a place where people can seek helpwithout fear or condemnation.

Another important reminder was this:

Giving is not the reward for becoming debt free.Generosity is part of the healing process.

Even in seasons of financial struggle, generosity helpsloosen the grip money can have on the heart. It becomes an act of trust,worship, and dependence on God.

Finally, listeners were encouraged to inviteaccountability and wisdom into their financial lives. Contentment rarely growsin isolation. Wise community, honest conversations, and biblical perspectiveare essential for long-term financial and spiritual health.

Questions to Consider

  1. Are there areas of my financial life where I am pursuing comfort,     status, or comparison more than contentment?
  2. Has debt created anxiety, pressure, or limitations in my life that     are affecting my relationship with God or others?
  3. Am I making financial decisions with margin, wisdom, and prayer, or     simply based on what I am approved for?
  4. If God called me to make a major change tomorrow, would my financial     obligations make obedience difficult?
  5. Who in my life can help provide accountability, wisdom, and     encouragement as I seek to steward money faithfully?

Ep. 098 - Is Debt a Sin? A Biblical Perspective on Money, Anxiety, and Stewardship

0:00

Episode Transcript

Austin
Debt is not just a financial issue, it's a discipleship issue that reveals what we trust, what we fear, and what we believe will give us life. In today's episode, we'll explore a Christian stewardship perspective on debt. Why Scripture teaches it is dangerous, and how our hearts are often shaped by greed, consumerism, and chasing a lifestyle God never assigned.

Spencer
Austin. Today we get to talk about debt and maybe not our favorite topic, but one that's really, really important as we think about our lives as stewards of what the Lord has placed in our lives. And really, this is what the Lord hasn't placed in our lives. So if we go out and we grab something that he hasn't placed there often, it's an indication that maybe we shouldn't be reaching for that shiny item or whatever we need that we finance via debt.
So you want to unpack a little bit for us here how we think big picture about debt and where we'll be headed today.

Austin
Yeah, absolutely. And just to step back again, we're looking at this framework for Ron Blue. You can use money to live, give owe and grow. And owe is kind of split into two ways we can owe taxes and debt. And so today we're going to be talking about debt. And primarily because I think debt illuminates things in our lives.
It illuminates what we value in ways that maybe our normal regular everyday spending doesn't. Because I think it shows us a willingness to maybe say, well, I don't have the money for it, but I really want it. And so I'm going to put it on the credit card and hope that next month we'll do this. And it really is.
We think about this from a stewardship perspective debt isn't purely financial. I think all of these decisions will again, we come back to Ron Blue. $1 can't simultaneously be used to satisfy multiple needs. So if I'm taking on and spending more dollars on debt, it's less dollars that I can spend or give to the kingdom of God. It's less dollars that I have to save for potential, maybe future things that I need that can be really presumptive.
And so again, it's not just purely a financial issue. It really becomes a discipleship issue. And when we in the church decide, hey, debt is not something we want to talk about, it's kind of messy. Spending is really messy. We don't want to talk about it in the church. Then it can really spiral and take control. And I think even as we think about this from a like a corporate standpoint as the church, if we are filled within our churches of people who have over-wracked themselves in debt now, I think there's maybe even a propensity for the church to say, well, I need to get if we're being led by those types of people, does
it then lead the church to then be saying, well, I need a bigger building, I need a bigger X, Y, or Z. We need a bigger budget to do these nicer things. Maybe that's not God is calling us to do.

Spencer
Well, and really, we think about it just among our own clientele, among people that we talk with. And you could see a correlation between the amount of debt that a person has and the amount of anxiety that they have. That doesn't mean that if you have no debt, that you're going to have no anxiety. That's not at all the case.
But the more indebted people are, especially as a percentage of kind of their overall level of income, the level of anxiety, the level of fear mounts. And I can just even say, you know, personally, those seasons of life where I've had no debt at all, I feel so much more free, even when the debt is, you know, paying off the firm, you know, to my father, the most, understanding of all lenders and the most the person who's, you know, in my corner more than anybody else could be.
It's still there's still that that repayment, you know, that needs to happen. And so I think when we think about just mental peace, debt is always going to have an impact on that. And the more that we swim in that, sea of people who are headed that same direction and have debt, significant amounts of debt, the more that that's going to be normative.
And so we even we have to push back a little bit on that.

Austin
Right? Absolutely. Well, and we come back to this often. But Ron Blue again, he says the one way to break the power of money in life is through giving. And I love this quote from C.S. Lewis. And I think it really frames our conversation today, both in terms of what do we give up when we take on debt, but also why do we get into debt
some, sometimes, and this is from Mere Christianity. And he says, I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. So again, he's talking about this in context with giving. And he says, I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxury, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as ours, we're probably giving away too little.
And I think he frames this in such a way just to say, what are we chasing? If our incomes are the same as the people around us? And the luxurious, luxurious lifestyle is that which we are chasing, we're spending so much more money on those things, and we're not saying those are bad. I think the book of Ecclesiastes would remind us in wisdom that if we're seeking those as our telos as our end, it leads to almost a hopelessness.
And so I think C.S. Lewis here again, is coming back to this point of we should be giving out of our abundance, out of our joy. But if we are seeking our joy in amusements and luxuries and comforts, then we're probably giving away too little and keeping too much for ourselves.

Spencer
Well, and we we see this even with the homes that we purchase and that we build. And it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a larger home. Some families have lots of kids, and so we're having a larger space is great. I think when we look back, even a couple of generations, though, and it's fun kind of to go to Oak Ridge, you know, near where we live, you know, in Knoxville to be able to see all of these homes that were built around the same time, because Oak Ridge came into existence through the Manhattan Project so early 1940s.
You have all of these homes built, and you have these families that move into these homes that the average family was 5 or 6 people, you know, at the time. I think, you know, if you had to round, I think it was six people, you know, two adults, four children, at the time when the homes were being built.
But the average home was something like 1100 square feet, you know, that's that's built in that whole, system and neighborhoods and, and such at that time. Well, that would be a home that's about half the size of an average build these days. But we have far fewer people in the family, you know, these days. And so coming back to your point about the luxurious ness, we might not feel like it's a level of luxury.
But when we look back, you know, over the last couple of hundred years and the direction that we're on; no, it actually is, it's quite luxurious. And if we look to our brothers and sisters around the world, definitely luxurious, you know, compared to what they're going through, and such. So we need some other anchor points. I think when we start to look at our lifestyle, and the debt that we might take on to achieve that lifestyle, with, with respect to, what the, the actual human, trajectory condition, you know, has been what we really, get over time.

Austin
Right. Well, I was I was pondering on this recently, and, you know, if we fast forward the book and read the book of revelation and it talks about the city of God that we will all inhabit as believers, he talks about the streets of gold. And I think sometimes we we look at this and we're like, wow, streets made of gold that's so opulent.
But when we think about it, that is what we are trampling underfoot day in and day out. The thing that we see is the most opulent, beautiful metal. Precious metal is what we are going to be placing our feet on, to walk around the city of God on a day to day basis. It moves from being this ultimate value that we pursue in this lifetime to being something that yes, it is still showing the abundance of God, but in such a way that yes, this is under our feet.
God is so much better. His presence, his joy with us is so much better. And so coming back to when we think about debt. And you were mentioning this earlier when you were talking about the times that you've been in debt, whether it has been to purchase the firm from your father. I think about mortgages that we've had before.
We've sold houses. The reality with debt, if we look at Proverbs 22:7 the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender. I think this is the reality of why debt is so challenging from an emotional level. Whether we take away the greed that oftentimes comes with the debt that gets us into those places where we have to over leverage ourselves, the reality is the borrower, when I take on that debt, I am a slave to the person that has lent it to me.
Whether it's a kind lender like your father, you're still enslaved to making sure that you pay him back. And you are. Especially if we're thinking about lending to brothers and sisters in Christ. I think we're still enslaved in that relationship to where there are terms of a loan that I am bound to pay back, and I think this is why it can be so emotional.
It places under somebody else's authority. When our primary authority is meant to be God. And this is why, again, when we think about debt, Scripture doesn't look at it mathematically. Scripture doesn't say, well, mortgage rates are at 6% right now. And really historically they've been at three or they were at 3%. So really, if you got a 3% mortgage, you're in a really good spot.
It doesn't look at it like that. It looks at it relationally because we are relational beings and tied with one another and with our church and with our Heavenly Father. So if we have said, you are my authority figure, Mr. Mortgage Lender or Mr. Credit Card loan or whatever loan we put out there, we still have to put the reality on.
We're under that authority of that lender.

Spencer
And it's always going to be there psychologically. You know, we had a great opportunity a few years ago to be able to, with a business partner to buy this building that we, practice in. And, family member on Emily's side was kind enough to be able to make a loan very quickly, you know, to us so that we could make that purchase and then we've we've not paid that off in full for some tax reasons and some other, you know, pieces to it in terms of how we're formed and structured and such.
And again, that lender is remarkably kind, remarkably understanding, remarkably in our corner. And yet still psychologically, you know I've got I've got to have I feel like I have to have enough over here on the side to be able to pay that off at a moment's notice, because I don't want to be beholden to, to a, a lender.
There. And so I think we can do all that we can psychologically to escape this, but, there's still always going to be that, that component if we are, if we have debt that, we've we've got to think about that.

Austin
Right? Absolutely. And I think, you know, as we continue to take a step forward that assumes certain things about us, it assumes our income is going to be stable, our health is going to be stable. Our relationships are going to be stable. That God is not going to call us elsewhere. You know, I don't think we are going to we're itching to get back on the mission field.
But we had some missionaries recently that we met with, and Kayla and I were driving home was like, do you ever long to be back on the mission field? It's like, yeah, there's days where I think, yes, the Lord was so near and so kind and that we loved that life, even though it's hard. It was so hard.
And I really enjoy the life that God has given us. But there's still days where I'm like, I wonder what what the Lord would have us and do in 20, 30 years when our kids are out of the house? If we're retired, is that an area where he might call us? If I am enslaved to a mortgage payment that I have to keep up, I have to keep a certain level of income or my lifestyle demands this.
If God were to say, Austin, leave your job and go back on the mission field, then I might need to say, well, Lord, I like this, but I can't yet. I'm tied to this earth in these ways, and I think that assumption of debt is just one that we continue have to grapple with. Is is there flexibility that when God calls us to do something, if we're in debt, can we do it?

Spencer
Right . And real estate in general, you know, it's illiquid, but then you add a mortgage to that and now you've got a real set of considerations because you don't really want to sell at a loss or sell it at not the premium that you can get. And so it does it. It creates challenges in terms of listening sometimes and responding to what the Lord might say, because you might not even be calling us to a different location or a different vocation.
But if he calls us even to the same city, but just to downsize, can we do that? You know, if he calls us to a different neighborhood for ministry, it's so much more difficult when we've got a level of debt. And then if we layer on, of course, you know, auto debt or some other, you know, credit card debt, then we've got all kinds of other considerations that might keep us, tied to the same job, tied to the same, you know, trajectory in other ways in life.

Austin
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think, again, we come back and we say, who do I trust? Is it my own financial projections, or is it in the provision of God? And the reality is we want to constantly have a heart that trusts God. And I think if we look at 1 Timothy 6:9-10, I think those are the disordered affections that we need to be aware of.
And and Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says, those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
And I think as we think about this in terms of debt, I just have to think, how many friendships do I know that when money is poured on in such a way that either they were not ready for it, they were not spiritually prepared to deal with an increase of abundance. How it has led them away from the Lord.
And I think money is one of those things where when we think about this in terms of debt, when we think about it in terms of giving, when we think about it in terms of lifestyle spending on ourselves, it's going to reveal our idols more quickly than a lot of other things. And again, I think when we look at that, we just have to come back to this question of what am I desiring?
Is it my greed for something that I should never have had? Or is it my greed for something that somebody else has? Am I coveting? Am I trying to have a life that I see somebody else? And I'm like, I like that. I want that type of lifestyle. It I think that oftentimes it it challenges our presumptions on what is enough, what is a contentment in this lifestyle that God calls us to do, rather than a, a commitment to chasing the next thing.

Spencer
Right. Well, and we can even see this is the same on Wall Street as it is, you know, in our personal finances, because many of the, the scandals, many of the falls, in the market have been driven in large part by taking on too much debt or taking it on inappropriately. You know, you think about just even the last 30 years, you could go back almost every time.
We have huge issues.
It's because of debt. So you think about the global financial crisis, most of it driven, you know, at least driving up to it with, you know, inflated real estate prices. The, the CDOs that were out there, the commercial, debt obligations, you know, you have all of these mortgages that are packed together, that, you know, you don't have good underwriting quality to it.
You know, you go farther back, you go to long term capital management, a huge, issue in 1998 when you had, people taking on, one firm, taking on a tremendous amount of leverage to try to exploit irregularities in the market. Well, that that works really, really well until it doesn't and spreads go the other way.
But you have all of these instances, you can say the same thing about the technology bubble. You know, so much debt being taken on by different firms. You know, you think about, Enron, you know, in the accounting scandal there. All that they were doing in terms of the leverage that they were taking on within the system, we could we could go through time, you know, over the last 30 years and so many of the issues that we see on Wall Street there, because firms didn't live by the biblical principle to eliminate debt or to really minimize it, but really sought too much.
gain, and said, well, we'll just take on, some debt here. And that will, fuel our returns because our returns will be higher than the debt that we're taking on. Well, if you can get a guaranteed 10%, versus taking on debt of five, that's great. But that's never the case or virtually never the case. And so that's where, you know, we can see even in Wall Street.
And so again, anytime somebody comes to you and says, okay, well, we're going to use some leverage in here to do this. Buyer beware. You know in that because that is is fuel for a inferno that you probably can't control from an investment side of things too.

Austin
Yeah. Spencer, I think those are great examples because it again reveals that heart level posture of what am I chasing? What am I seeking? Am I looking for contentment in the Lord, or am I looking for fat pockets? At the end of the day, and I think we have to come back to, and say, is all debt sinful?
I think there's not a yes no answer, but I think Scripture consistently warns us against it. There are times where, even in the, the law that the, the, the law says you can lend to other people, just don't commit usury. And so I think there are ways in which we see lending done in Scripture. I think there's ways that we can help a brother or sister out of debt by lending them resources at a significantly lower rate.
Maybe we're helping them pay off credit card debt in certain ways that we can, take the slavery that they have to a usurious lender and take it away from them. And I think there's some biblical, wisdom to helping our brothers and sisters with that. So do we say all that is sinful? No. But Scripture consistently warns us of the damages of debt.
And so I think we have to come at this and, and, and just some guiding principles should be Christians should try to avoid debt whenever possible. How many of us have 250,000, a half $1 million to buy a home today? Just sitting on the sidelines? Not many. And so mortgages, I think, are one place where we again, we we walk into it wisely.
We walk into it humbly and say, okay, what is enough? What type of a home is enough? What type of alone is enough? We need to be prudent and wise, but we can't just say no. You never take on debt, only pay cash for everything. I think there are certain instances where we we just need to walk in with eyes wide open.

00;19;10;12 - 00;19;30;29
Spencer
Well, and this is where having that margin of safety, I think, is such a good principle. And this is another biblical principle that we come back to, of having a primary reserve and then not going up right to the limit of what a lender will offer. So, you know, if you walk in to, you know, a bank and say, how much will you lend me to buy a home?
And they say, well, your your limit is $550,000. You shouldn't be looking at homes that are priced at $600,000 and hope that you can just, you know, negotiate down to 550 and then, you know, live right up to that, that that's giving yourself no margin. Because they're going to look at your income and they're going to say, okay, well, you know, you've got a certain amount that you're going to have to use for groceries and, you know, other kinds of basic expenses, you're going to have to pay us principal and interest.
You're going to have to pay taxes. You're going to have to pay for insurance, all these different pieces. So you really are presuming on the future that you're going to have stable health, stable income, stable job, stable, all kinds of different things that may not happen. And so it's always wise, I think, to build in that margin of safety where, you know, if you if you're talking with a lender that you trust and they say, well, you know, based on your income and based on where you sit right now, you know, you could buy a home for $550,000.
You want to be taking a haircut, you know, from that. Just so you know, again, if something happens and maybe you work for the government and they decide they're not going to pay you for a couple of months because, you know, your positions are, you know, unpaid, you know, in a budget. I mean, that's obviously an extreme example, but one that a lot of people have been experiencing here of late.
But, you know, if you have, if you have to make a transition, you know, with career and you're out of work for a month or two, which happens a lot. You know, you've got to have enough in that primary reserve. But it's also even more helpful to have margin, there in terms of your budget, because if the next job you get isn't quite as, you're not getting paid quite as much, gosh, it's really nice to have that margin, you know, in there.

Austin
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So as we have that margin and we think about, okay, if I'm going to enter debt, let's just make it rare, make it strategic. If possible, make it short term and enter it with sobriety and prayer. Because also, you know, as I think about any time that I've ever looked at a home, if we tell our real estate agent, hey, we've our budget is X, well, they're going to say, okay, that's a good starting point, right?
So if we have a lender that said 550 is your limit, right? Then your real estate agent, if you say, well, 550 is the limit, they might say, well, okay, that's nice. Let's go look at five 5606 50. Right. And I guarantee you some of those homes at 650 are going to look really shiny and fancy. Yeah. And so let's kind of constantly always come back to these ideas of okay, let's let that be rare and let's enter it with sobriety and prayer.
And if I'm entering with sobriety and pray, the Lord may say, yes, go for that.
However. I also would want my brothers and sisters around me speaking in to say, are you really sure that that's where the Lord is leading and guiding? Because my heart can say one thing that I think the Lord says, and he may not be saying that.

Spencer
Well, and that's the danger you you need those people speaking in, because by and large, the home that is priced at $700,000 is priced at $700,000 for a reason, over a home that's priced at 600, over a home that's priced at 500. And, you know, if you have, say you're a young family, you have, a couple kids and maybe another child or two on the way.
Maybe you've got, other ideas of how you would like to have more space, you know, be it, you know, land or yard or whatever it might be, all of these things can start to pull on us and tug us and say, oh, life would be so much better if you just had this. And then if we don't have that margin built in, you know, suddenly we're right up against it and we've got to start then making some decisions of, okay, am I going to, have enough space with my spouse during the week to have a date or whatever it might be?
We have so little margin that even the things that bring life and space and and rest to us, we might have to work, you know, another shift, or we might have to pick up part time consulting or whatever it might be to be able to pay for that little bit of extra there.

Austin
Absolutely. Okay, so as we close this episode out, we just want to talk through a couple of ways. If you have found yourself in debt, just some practical things that we can talk through and think through first is we just need to name it, honestly. If you're in debt, whether it's credit card, whether it's mortgage, whatever it is, hospital bills, if you can name it and talk about it, I can't tell you the number of times that it if someone that I know has a medical bill, I can come to the church and say, hey, I've heard that there's a need, can we help fulfill the need?
And the church says, yes, let's fill the need. Let's help them out. So we need to be in a place where we can honestly and humbly say, hey, I've made a mistake. Sometimes I need help. Confession brings freedom. Debt and secrecy will destroy us where the church can be, a place of healing.

Spencer
And really, we think about that in sequence. You know, first, if,

Austin
you’re married; spouse, you've got to be on the same page.

Spencer
I can't tell you the number of people that, their marriages, are really struggling, because one person or the other hasn't disclosed an amount of debt and they're feeling, all kinds of guilt. Once the, debt is disclosed, there's a period of frustration. Yeah, but then healing, you know, thereafter oftentimes. So, particularly with spouse, but then confessing that to a close friend and like you said, to, spiritual, mentors or leaders in your life, there that sequence is so important that you have other people and particularly those closest to you that know what's going on.

Austin
Right. Absolutely. And I think as we keep moving on, when we think about that, that quote from Ron Blue, that generosity giving breaks the power of money. I love this idea of giving is not the reward of being debt free. It's part of the healing process. It's where we meet the Lord and say, I trust you. I'm going to give this back part of my journey to being debt free after I've confessed my sin, after I've confessed my idolatry, my greed, I'm going to move ahead and try to give back to the Lord what is His in the first place.
Thinking about how can I reduce my lifestyle? Are there certain things I've said yes to that I need to start saying no to? And that may be kids activities. Kids activities can be really expensive, and we get a lot of joy in seeing our kids do those activities. But if we're swimming in debt because of them, it's time to cut it out.

Spencer
You know, I think the last piece that we might talk about is if we're there, that we might just confess it to spouse, confess it to a mentor, but really bring others around us that are helping support us for a period of time. And that may be several months, that may be several years. But just helping us sort through all the different pieces, make wise decisions, and then hold to that line, because there's always going to be the opportunity to spend more on whatever our heart's desire is.
And so coming back to no, I have enough, I'm reminded of the goodness of God. I need this margin in place if there is more and legitimately now I've paid off my debt. Then I can explore other avenues.

Austin
Right. Absolutely. Well, and I think the beauty of community is when you confess something to your brothers and sisters in Christ and say, hey, can you help me into this? You may not know, but they may be struggling with it. To you, it may be a place of healing, not just for yourself, but for your community. So clients, if you have questions about debt, how to work through it, how to think about it wisely, how to avoid it, we would love to have a conversation with you.
And until next time, take care. If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss the next episode.

Disclosure
This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee and you can visit our website at www.secondhalfstewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.

But how do we actually become generous stewards?

Join us every other week as we explore what Biblical stewardship looks like regarding our money, time, relationships, gifts, and experiences.

Plus, get our complementary guide to Biblical giving, and answer the question: “What does the Bible really say about giving?”

Sign up for updates

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.