Your Debt is Zeroed Out
Have you ever considered what it would be like to wake up one morning and find out you are debt free? Here’s the scenario: After your first cup of coffee, you settle into the monthly routine of paying your bills on line. You sit down at your computer and check the balances due on each bill so you can make the appropriate payment in accordance with the established schedules. To your surprise, the balance for the first bill is zero. You think to yourself, OMG, my computer must have been hacked or the biller company’s systems have been hacked. No way should my balance be zero…No way should I have that debt paid. In disbelief, you ask yourself…”How could this happen…I did nothing to have this debt paid off.” So you go to the next bill at a different biller’s payment system to check the balance and once again, the entire balance is zero. The debt has been paid. You have absolutely no explanation for this apparent “blessing” in your life. Why did this happen to you? Who is your awesome benefactor? WOW, your “dream” for one day being able to live “debt free” has arrived. What do you do now?
Feeling of Great Relief
Paying off one’s debts is a wonderful feeling of relief that many people have experienced sometime in their life. It may have been a small loan, a credit card balance, a car loan, or a large home mortgage that took 20 to 30 years to pay off. When we sign for the loan, regardless of the size or length, we typically all say a silent prayer that our income would be steady and adequate to pay the monthly invoices until the debt is paid off. Unforeseen challenges to our financial stability cannot deter us from staying on schedule to complete the task. And oh what a feeling of joyous elation it is when that final debt payment is made. A feeling of success for the achieving the dream of owning outright the automobile, the house, the boat, or paying off the college loan for your child.
Being debt free is a freedom that few people are able to experience until they are relatively older and nearing retirement age. For most of us, it simply takes that many years to accumulate the earnings to pay off a long-term loan. However, in the “natural”, that joy of paying off a financial debt is only temporary. Life goes on and sometime we find that another significant purchase is needed to support our lifestyle or send another child to college. Life just happens, doesn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong; in today’s world paying off debt is a valuable thing to do, right? Typically, the result is your credit score will increase which enables the “lender” to give you higher credit limits and may also lower your annual percentage rate on any loans executed. That’s a good thing. In fact, we tell our children when they enter the “real world”, to take out a small loan, make payments on time, and pay off the balance in a timely manner so they can have “good” credit with the banks for any future purposes. So to summarize, there is value to paying off one’s debts.
Eternal Debt Relief
However, some of us may not realize or appreciate the greatest debt payment ever made for all mankind and forever. This spiritual debt payment for our sins in the natural is far more valuable than any pay off of car loans, college loans, or home mortgages, combined. As expressed in Psalm 32:1, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” The cumulative sins of man’s transgressions against God’s commandments have already received the final blood payment to reconcile man with God.
The sin debt Jesus paid once and for all by his crucifixion, death, and resurrection is the most valuable debt payment anyone can ever experience this side of heaven. The physical and emotional joy experienced when we pay off a loan should be multiplied by a factor of 10 each day for having received the ultimate debt payment from Jesus. We should thank Almighty God every day of our lives for the priceless gift He bestowed on this world through His son’s self-sacrifice.
Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the bondage of sin and spiritual death on mankind, thus enabling a connection with God through Jesus, which is invaluable. Nothing in this world exists that compares to this valuable blessing from God. Not even a million “Hope” diamonds locked up in your personal safe would move the “value needle” in comparison to having our sins forgiven, when we ask, and being able to share eternal life with God in heaven when our journey on earth comes to an end.
Making the Right Choice
Unfortunately, some people in this secular world cannot or choose not to see or comprehend the value of accepting God in their lives and establishing a personal relationship with Him. As Paul relates in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God is love and His love is unconditional. It is absolutely vital to get to know God on a daily basis, not just in Sunday worship. Having that daily prayer time or quiet time to listen will enable you to experience the awesome love that God has for you. Having that personal relationship will foster a better understanding of how much you mean to God and reciprocally enable you to experience how much God means to you as well. For believers, who already have that God connection, it’s just as important to share the good news of salvation with others so they too have an opportunity to feel the joy of being debt free from sin and showing their gratitude to Jesus for His sacrifice on the cross.
Sharing the Great Relief
So make the time to reach out and show God’s love to everyone you meet. Open your heart; turn your attention from “Me” to “You”, and help someone experience the awesome love that God has for each of us. You may never know the impact it will have on someone else’s life, but God knows.
Live, Learn, and Grow in Jesus!!
Blessings,
Jerry
