Romans 8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not
to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Debt. Now there’s a
concept most church work families can wrap our heads around. Not because we
love racking it up, but it has been or is a reality in our lives. We write the
check each month to the holder of gross amounts of student loans, we still pay
for a car we have to fix regularly, or we hope that the cash on hand will cover
the grocery bill for the week. Or maybe you are out of this stage and thankful
to be in debt to no one any longer. How freeing it is!
Finances are often a
contentious issue, individually, in a marriage, and in congregations. So this
language in Romans makes sense to us. Debtors we do not want to be. Debt is a
shackle, a weight, the opposite of freedom.
So let us live for
one who freed us for the very sake of our freedom. (Galatians 5:1) Christ paid
our debts on the cross in full. Every sin, every evil thought, every single
thing that separated us from God- gone. Paid in full. Can you breath in and
feel the weight lift just thinking of it?
And so we hold no
debt either. We are released of the burden. So things in this earthly life need
not weigh us down either. This is easily said, but financial burden is real,
emotional turmoil is real, medical bills and health concerns are real.
What is also real is
that we need not “live” according to them. It is easy for these burdens and
worries to begin to rule our lives. Anxiety overtakes us, we make enemies of
our spouse in an argument because the weight of it is overwhelming, we live in
fear of the next thing that will empty the little we have in our savings. This
is living according to the flesh, this is a challenge for most of us in the
sanctified life.
Praise God! Just as
He has justified us from all sin. He has freed us from every burden. Just as we
are His, He then rules everyone in our homes, every thing in our lives, every
dollar in our wallet. We live and lay it at the cross. We experience
restoration in our trouble through His Word and at His table.
Thank you, Lord for
providing for my family. Thank you for bearing every burden. I lay my burdens
before you now, knowing you have already lifted them on the cross. This life I
live in the Spirit. In Jesus Name. Amen.
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