"I should have listened to Dave Ramsey; now it's too late."
How it sounds in your head: If only you'd done the baby steps. If only you'd lived on rice and beans. If only you'd had a budget. Other people followed the plan and they're debt-free. You didn't have the discipline, and now you're paying the price. The formula works—you just didn't work it.
"Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."
-- Colossians 2:20-23Religion + self-help merging financial formulas with righteousness and teaching discipline earns blessing.
He sees Dave Ramsey success stories—people who followed the steps and got results. The plan is logical, mathematical, proven. His lack of results seems to prove his lack of character, not the plan's limitation.
Crippled in both feet, grandson of the deposed king, living in hiding in Lo Debar (literally 'place of nothing'), no ability to earn or work his way to provision. David didn't give him a job application or a self-improvement plan—he RESTORED all of Saul's land, gave him a seat at the king's table PERMANENTLY, and provided servants to work the land. Zero effort, total restoration.
I REFUSE the lie that I failed because I didn't follow man's formula. IT IS WRITTEN: Regulations and financial commandments have 'appearance of wisdom' but no power to save. IT IS WRITTEN that the BLESSING of the Lord makes rich and adds NO SORROW—not the budget of Ramsey. Mephibosheth did NOTHING and ate at the king's table for life. The prodigal had no payment plan, just a running Father. The widow didn't budget her way out of debt—oil MULTIPLIED. I am Abraham's seed by faith, and the BARAK blessing doesn't require seven baby steps. It requires one baby step—INTO THE FATHER'S ARMS. Grace is my economy.
The Father isn't waiting for you to complete a financial course before He restores you—He's already prepared your seat at the table while you're still in Lo Debar. Man's systems have appearance of wisdom; Father's love has appearance of waste, yet produces abundance.