Once the decision is made to get out of debt, most people assume they have to do everything themselves. We go out in our own strength thinking we have total control over being in debt or not being in debt. We got in debt ourselves so we figure we have to get out of debt the same way. And, we expect to be able to reach our debt freedom in a short period of time even though it has probably been a long process that brought us to our present situation.

What most people fail to take into account is that God loves them and wants to be at the controls of their debt freedom programs. Even so, if we insist on trying to get out of debt on our own, God will step aside and let us go ahead and try. Soon, as with any endeavor that excludes Him, many of us will become frustrated and burned out when we don’t achieve debt freedom in a month or two and we will either finally turn to Him for help or revert back to what we were doing before. When we are finally ready to let Him take over, He will gladly do so and He will succeed where we failed.

Certainly many people have gotten out of debt without any help from God. They felt they didn’t need His help and many of them are very proud of what they were able to accomplish. But God always has a better way than what we can achieve ourselves. Perhaps there were some tensions or some sacrifices that could have been avoided if He had been the source of the program. Perhaps it would have happened sooner had the Lord been at the controls. And if the process to achieve debt freedom was not based in faith, God wasn’t pleased with it anyway (Hebrews 11:6).

For a Christian, achieving victory over indebtedness does not mean that you first have to be totally out of debt. And it does not mean that you necessarily have to go through a period of sacrifice and denial. It does mean that you have given the problem to God and that under His direction, you have taken whatever action you can to do your part toward achieving debt freedom without taking over the process yourself. What most people forget is that He alone is our Provider and that without adequate provision, we will never be able to get out of debt no matter how hard we try. In truth, we desperately need His help to overcome our indebtedness just as we need His help in every other area of life.