Tuesday, July 26, 2011
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In all the years we were raising our family, we didn't have a dog at our house. One big reason is that dogs have a non-negotiable need to be walked. We've had some fish. Our fish never needed to be taken for a walk. We had a parrot. It's very hard to walk a parrot.
Now, we had a pretty active neighborhood and you could usually find people jogging, and walking, and biking, and walking their dog. But the funniest scene there was the people whose dogs were walk them. Here's a little person and a big dog, and this wide-eyed person being pulled by that dog just as surely as a wagon is pulled by horses. It's pretty funny when the master is being mastered like that...or is it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Is Your Dog Walking You?"
Now, today's word from the Word of God is not about pets, but it comes from Deuteronomy 28. I'll begin reading at verse 12. This passage is very interesting because it tells what God will bless, and what will cause Him to withhold His blessing. And the whole history of Israel from this point on is pretty much a reflection of what God promises here. When they did what He said, they had His blessing - they had abundance. When they did not do what God said, He withheld His blessing.
Here's one thing that He emphasizes. "The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail." Sounds a little bit like those dogs walking those people doesn't it?
Well, listen to verse 44. They have disobeyed God, and it talks about the alien living among them. And it says, "He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head and you will be the tail." It's very interesting; pretty graphic language that God uses here. He is saying that when you're in debt, you're the tail. It reminds me of those masters being pulled around by their dogs.
When you solve a financial problem by going into debt, you usually end up with a bigger problem. You lose control of your life. Debt strains marriages. I mean, there are more arguments over money and debt than anything else between married couples. Debt tempts you to make compromises. It may force Mom out to work instead of being home with the kids, or long hours of working and neglecting the family, or it might reduce your giving to the Lord. It may tempt you to make choices, not based on what is God's best but on what will get us the money we need. And then you end up wasting the Lord's money on interest too.
Literally, one compartment of your life takes over, the financial, and your dog is walking you. Nowhere in scripture did God meet the needs of His children with a loan. Now, some borrowing may be okay, if you're sure how you're going to pay it back. But it's never God's highest road; it's always a step toward financial bondage. If you want God's best, draw a line today against any more debt. Commit to wait for God's supply till He gives it. Attack that debt one day at a time; whittle it away. And commit yourself, whatever the past has been, to a debt-free future and just say, "Lord, if You'll help us get out of this bondage, we commit to You that we will never go back to it again."
God's fullest blessing comes through His gifts, not through men's loans. Besides, you look silly being run all over by a debt that you should be running. Remember that the next time you see a dog walking a man. That could be you and your debts.