Have you ever had a client that just did not pay you what they owed you? If you are in business and have extended credit or accepted checks, you have probably had that happen.
Maybe you are on the other side of that. Maybe there has been a time when you could not pay a debt you owed.
What needs to be done?
If you cannot pay, the first thing that you must do is to stop using the product or service that is being provided. I understand that there are certain services that you must have – electricity for example, so look to cutting the things you can do without.
What do you need to do if you are a business owner and your client cannot pay? Over the years I have had clients that had to pay late. Some could not pay at all. Sometimes I had to discontinue doing business with a client because they could not pay. Did I want to do that? No. But it is not helpful to let a client create a huge bill that they have no way to pay. It is not responsible to enable them to dig a hole that they cannot get out of. I think any time you help someone into a debt that you know sets them up for a fall, you have done them a disservice. Don’t lend them a shovel!
I have to wonder about businesses that let their clients get really far in debt. Years ago we bought a townhouse in southern Maryland. The bank was willing to loan us more money than we could have comfortably been able to afford to pay back. The mortgage payment would have been a large percentage of my husband’s check. If we had needed anything else that can come along with breathing – a vehicle, a roof repair, surgery – we would have had to tap our previous savings to make that payment.
It might be legal to help someone do something that will harm them or they may regret in the long run, but it is certainly not ethical.
Who is to blame? The lender or the borrower? Both might be on some level. Ultimately, the responsibility for paying the debt belongs to the borrower, or the purchaser.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
1 Timothy 6:9
I hope that you are on neither side of this equation. If you want to have money so you let your customers run up big bills hoping they will be able to pay you in the future, it usually does not work out like that. If you are the one running up big bills because you want to live like you are rich or you are counting on having more income in the future, it does not always work out like we plan.
If you are like either of these folks, please rethink where you are. You are headed for a snare.
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:16
Today’s challenge is to realize that the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords loves you and knows what you really need. Wait on him.