Read: Colossians 2:13-15
Reflect:
- We’ve probably all felt the weight of some debt—mortgage, car loan, credit cards or student loans. We make payments for what feels like eternity. We are unable to do some of what we’d really like to do. Sometimes we can’t replace or repair items that deeply need it. At its worst, some lose their homes.
- Our human condition—sin—has left us in deep debt. Its weight is far beyond any we could imagine. It holds us back, prevents us from growing, keeps us from serving, and hinders our witness. It has a strangle hold on us.
- Jesus, at the cross, simply cancels that debt. He goes to the ledger and simply writes, “paid in full” across our name. We are freed. And in that freedom, we are empowered to do all that God calls, all our hearts desire, all our world needs from us. We are out of debt and free to serve.
Respond:
- Read Matthew 18:23-27. Describe what this man must have thought/felt.
- Ponder the way debt has hindered you in the past? What would it be like to be freed from that?
- Is your “debt” owed because of sin keeping you from being empowered to serve? What can you do about that?
Pray: Thank God for His rich mercy which forgives you instead of exacting payment from you. Pray that you fully grasp the immensity of what God has done for you. Ask God to focus your freedom on something worthwhile.
