When you’re in debt, it can feel like you’re drowning. Working with a credit counselor to help you get out of debt and back on track can make you feel like you’ve taken a huge step in the right direction–but you may be wondering what the difference is between a normal credit counseling service and Christian credit counseling. While Christian credit counseling will provide all of the same opportunities as regular credit counseling, it will also offer a few other benefits.
Your Faith is Priority
Christian Credit Counselors understand what’s important to you. As a Christian, your faith is a priority in your life. Even while you’re working your way out of debt, you consider it important to tithe and to support your church. Traditional credit counselors might not understand this priority in your life or try to convince you that it doesn’t have any value, but a Christian credit counseling service understands that tithing is an expression of faith even in the midst of debt.
Understanding Biblical Principles
Christian Credit Counselors understand what the Bible has to say about money. That means that they’ll help you manage your money with an attitude of stewardship–that is, taking care of the bounty that God has given you to manage–rather than ownership. The Christian viewpoint on financial management is simply different from the one presented by American society today. Not only will you be encouraged to get out of debt, you’ll learn how to stay out of debt. That includes developing an attitude that accepts that God has provided enough–even when the world is calling you to believe that you need the next big item, the next big thrill, or the next major expense more than you need to stay out of debt.
Prayerfully Consider Current Expenses
Christian Credit Counselors will help you to prayerfully consider your current expenses. There might be more ways than you think to decrease your spending and increase your ability to get out of debt. Sometimes, simply keeping track of your current expenses for a month is enough to make those clear. Other times, you need to prayerfully consider how to reduce your current spending habits. That’s not just looking at things that you aren’t using (a gym membership that you’ve paid for long after you stopped going to the gym; a cell phone plan that has more minutes or data than you really need), but sometimes, things that you are. For example, do you have a hobby that is a constant drain on your finances–particularly one that does not honor God? What about a habit that God has been trying to convict you about: spending real money on online games, or a junk food addiction that you need to stop feeding? Prayerfully considering your current lifestyle and expenses can help you implement the plan that God has for your life.
Christian Credit Counseling will help you learn to live a life of financial freedom. Debt is like a chain around your neck, pulling you down and preventing you from living the life that God has for you. By consulting with a Christian credit counseling service, you’ll not only learn how to get out of debt; you’ll learn to live a life of financial freedom as you spend your money according to God’s design instead of your own.
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