I'm in Debt

A brand new day, a brand new year...a clean slate...a fresh start.

This year has begun for me with a reminder of my indebtedness according to Romans 13. It's a short chapter...why don't you just read it real quick?

I took a close look at the last half of the chapter today that really sums up what is most important in life especially as we draw nearer and nearer to the return of Christ. Beginning in verse 8 it says,

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law...and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'...love is the fulfillment of the law.

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light! Let us behave...clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

Until we die, we owe a debt of love to one another. Look at the cross. Look at the love poured out for you and me when we were and are so undeserving. We who have received that love are to spend the rest of our days giving it away. Pouring it out on others. And, I John 3 reminds us in verse 18;

"Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity)."

Genuine love is not just thought or spoken every now and then. It is practiced...continually. I believe to clothe yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ is to practice love. And, verses 19 & 20 say,

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

I love that...when my heart is at rest in His presence. That's what practicing love will do; it will set your heart at rest in the presence of the Lord. Have you ever had moments or days or even extended times in your life when it seemed the Lord was distant? Could it be that our hearts were condemning us? Could it be that we were not following the Lord's command to love? Sometimes we have to ask the Lord to love for us? To give us love that we don't necessarily feel at the time. He will put love in us that we don't have on our own when we open our hearts and ask Him to ("For God is greater than our hearts"). Let's allow Him full access to even the hidden places of our hearts so we can be free.

Romans 13 concludes by reminding us that the hour has come to wake up! There's no time to waste! Get out there and love! Put on the armor of light and behave!

Let's do it!

Happy New Year, my friends...