WEEK 42 – DAY 1

DEBT CANCELED

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Colossians 2:13-14

I’ve had an interesting array of jobs in my life, and the best up until recently was the venue through which God gave me my children. That job involves a story of canceled debt. A man originally hired me to keep an eye on his teenagers while he traveled with his job. That evolved into helping them with their home-schooling. Then I quit my full-time job as an educator and spent every morning teaching them. The man purchased a new computer and printer to enable me to work from home transcribing, to be able to create lessons for his children, and to allow them to type reports and stories at my house. The understanding was that I would deduct a small monthly payment for the computer from my bill. After just a couple of months of slowly paying him back for the computer, he canceled that debt telling me not to deduct it from my wages anymore. What a generous gift!

An old chorus begins, “I owed a debt I could not pay.”  The deficit created by my sin was comparable to owing millions of dollars with interest compounded daily. There was no way I would ever be able to satisfy the righteous requirements of God. However, Jesus obliterated that debt when He died on the cross in my place. He nailed my bill to the cross marked “paid in full.” When I realized what Christ had done for me, I went from being dead and defeated by my sin to being forgiven and alive in the Lord. God allows me to start fresh with Him each day by confessing my sins and allowing Him to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).

Lord Jesus, thank you for paying our debt on the cross. May the change You’ve wrought in our lives bring honor and glory to You. Help us to express our gratitude in service to You and enable us to show others how to be spiritually debt free.