Page 27 - Evidence of Things Unseen

A Fool Returns to His Folly

Proverbs 26:11
Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who returns to his folly.

I mentioned previously that I had disobeyed God in the area of financial stewardship,
and, when I cried out for deliverance from the burden of debt I had gotten myself into, the
Lord graciously delivered us from all debt and gave me some much needed discipline at the
same time. I wish I could say that the story ended there and that I continued in faithfulness
from that day forward. Yet my covetous heart quickly led me to return to my old ways.
As with many people in their sins, I did not set out to deliberately disobey God. I
simply found myself wanting something and I made some very bad justifications to
convince myself that I was not sinning as I had formerly done. When the Lord had delivered
us from debt, we were left with a positive sum of $8,000. I didn’t realize it at the time, but
eight is the number of new beginnings, and God wanted us to start over fresh as we looked
to Him to be our provider, and as we responded with willing obedience in all of our
monetary decisions.
We only had one vehicle and I had wanted a pick-up truck for a long time. My wife and
I talked about it and we decided that I should go ahead and purchase a truck while we had
the money. I began looking around at both new and used trucks, and I found a new Mazda
pick-up truck that was selling for about $13,000. I really liked this truck, and I decided that
I wanted to buy it.
I justified this purchase like this. If I put down a large down payment then I really
wouldn’t be in debt, for I could sell the truck at any time and get back more than I owed on
it. Also, since I was now completely debt free, and I was still making the same amount of
money as I did when I was in debt, I had lot’s of financial breathing room and could easily
make the payments on this truck, which would only amount to about $150 a month. A third
justification I used was that I had been told by relatives that buying used vehicles resulted
in buying someone else’s problems, so you should always buy something new. I had never
really bought into this argument, but it provided appropriate justification for my covetous
heart at that moment.
It is amazing how blinded we can become by our carnal desires. God sent me some
clear indications that this was not His will, but I discounted them. I had a conversation with
the elder I had spoken of before, Bill Martin, who was now living in another town, and I told
him what God had done for us and that I was going to buy a new truck. He told me over the
telephone that he believed I was making a mistake and was heading right back into that
which God had just delivered me from. I repeated to him my list of justifications and he
then replied, “Okay, I won’t say anymore.”
I could wish that Bill would have been more forceful with me, even to threaten to come
down and give me a whipping if I acted so foolishly by returning to my error. But He left me
in God’s hands, and eventually God did give me the whipping I deserved.
God gave me one more opportunity to avert my course. My boss at work had a very
nice Toyota four wheel drive pick-up truck and he heard that I was thinking about buying
a truck. He approached me one day and told me about his truck, and, without knowing how
much money I had available, he told me that he would sell his truck for $8,000. In
hindsight I have chided myself many times for not paying attention to what God was saying.