Who has their hands in your pockets?
The banks are users. Usury is defined as “the practice of lending money and requiring the borrower to pay a high amount of interest.” You know this is true when you look at your mortgage interest payments. Similarly, perhaps you have fallen into the trap of making minimum payments on credit, only to discover that the interest you pay is far greater than what the item you purchased cost at the till. This is how banks get rich and can pay to occupy space on almost every conceivable city corner-banks are a dime a dozen, as the saying goes.
The relationship of indebtedness makes us slaves
There exists in this relationship of borrowing and lending, an indebtedness imbalance:
“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7)
Rich ruler, poor borrower, slave of the lender. What does this imagery stir up in you, dear one? It curls my lip in agitation. One human owing (owning) another to the point of enslavement is not the plan, has never been Gods plan.
Traveling to the dark side, to emotional usury
Travel with me to the dark side, dear reader. Lets suppose the usury is of an emotional nature, emotional blackmail and entrapment, so to speak? Here is where the inky darkness has its wonton way with unsuspecting hapless victims. What if the user grooms the victim, over time garnering hefty penalties in the form of over payment, indebtedness via obligation, a sense of duty, with a life sentence of more of the same, no end in sight? Even in the game of monopoly, a lucky player can draw a get out of jail for free card. With emotional usury, there doesn’t appear to be an escape on the horizon, no pass-without-punishment card draw. Here is the infamous crossroads so often mentioned in metaphor. Choose continued enslavement or choose freedom, no luck required: the only necessity here is consciousness.
The taker, the user, he/she will not stop taking as long as you are giving dear one. If you can relate to enslavement, if you believe or conceive that someone has power over you, might I suggest you choose to break free? Is this easier said then done? Yes, it is, and for this reason: It is to God you must turn for your get-out-of-jail-for-free card. This requires you to humble yourself, go before him, and ask for help. He has the answers that we all seek and when we ask, wait and listen, cell doors clang open and the enslaved are free to walk out of their personal prisons, into the light.
God does not want you to be used dear reader. He wants you to be free.
