Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.

Devotion based on Romans 13:8

Credit cards and car payments. Mortgages and medical bills. Leases and braces. Collectors and filing for bankruptcy. Then there is always the question of whether there will be enough retirement benefits and enough for tuition payments. We all know the burden of financial commitments to one degree or another. It’s like a treadmill that we can’t get off. It can feel like a mountain that keeps us buried. Debt leaves us imprisoned and burdened. No wonder wise Solomon wrote, “The borrower is slave to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).

But these debts are just a hint of an even greater debt, the debt we owe to God. And we do “owe him big-time.” We have not loved him and others as we should. And that’s a debt we can’t repay. No amount of silver or gold in the world would ever be enough. That’s why God himself came up with a payment plan, a plan that included the blood of his very own Son. Jesus’ precious blood shed on the cross covers our sin and cancels our debt. That is the very meaning of the word “forgiven.”

God doesn’t promise to pay off all our financial debt, but the forgiveness he gives enables us to face the future with peace and hope. It also creates a new life of indebtedness—the welcomed debt of love and thanksgiving that we can give to him and each other.

Prayer: