Live Like No One Else Today

“Live Like No One Else Today”

By Suzie

This summer as I have been reading through The One Year Bible for my quiet time I noticed that certain words kept coming up.  Throughout the Old Testament the Lord keeps saying, “If you will walk in my statues and obey my rules and keep all my commandments..”.   I thought this applied to my new job since I had been praying for clear direction and discernment in this area.  Nearly every day this kept coming up and I thought, “ok Lord I hear you, I will obey you, aren’t I already?”  There was no immediate answer that I heard or noticed through His Word.  However, nearly every day my husband would come home and ask “Did you go anywhere today?  How much did you spend?”  These are the questions I dread the most and I get very defensive because I am guilty as charged!  As I have talked about before I like to shop and I can find any excuse to spend money.  “I just had to get the girls this for school” or “It was a great sale!” or “I really needed some new clothes because mine don’t fit anymore!”  and there are many more.  I always told him I would try harder not to spend so frivolously and I would usually be good about this for about a week.   

One hot day in July it all boiled over.  He came home, asked the same questions, I gave the same responses and He just said we cannot keep doing this.  It got really ugly and I won’t go into the details but in the end it was a good thing.

Just the two of us went out the next night for dinner and talked in great detail about my spending and us getting back on our budget and cutting out the extras.  We agreed to talk about money at a specific time each week, if something came up during the week that we had to buy then we would text each other and we got on a plan.  We have done Dave Ramsey, gone through Crown Financial and even helped facilitate a few classes but somewhere along the line we got off track.  We had taken on Ramsey’s Motto of “live like no one else today so you can live like no one else tomorrow.”  Whatever!  I want to live like everyone else today!  This is my problem!  My husband does not like debt; he grew up paying cash for everything while I grew up with my parents charging everything.  Combine the two of us and we are like oil and water.  God’s grace prevails and we both love the Lord therefore we will obey Him in all areas. 

Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”  This includes credit cards or working enough to pay for all those “extras” we think we or our children need. I don’t want to be a slave nor do I want my husband to think he is a slave to his job because of me.  I should not add this stress to my husband.   

This was the area I was not being faithful in.  I was not obeying my husband therefore, I was not obeying God.  Our faithful Father confirmed it again the Next Sunday through our pastor’s sermon.  He was preaching in Haggai.  Didn’t know Haggai had such powerful words.

Haggai 1:3-6 says, “Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ⁵ Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. ⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”

Challenge:  Does God keep repeating a certain “theme” over and over?  Pray it back and ask Him to clearly reveal what it is if you aren’t sure.  Don’t ignore something that keeps coming up, if God is repeating it, He is trying to get your attention.  Humble yourself and fully surrender to the Lord.