Jump Start # 3933
Colossians 2:14 “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Debt is an ugly master that strangles the hope and future out of many people. The average family in this country carries more than $100,000 in debt. Our country is $38 trillion in debt. So many things factor into these numbers. The dreams of many people are quickly fading away as reality sinks in, “we don’t have any money.”
But there is another type of debt. It’s not figured out on a calculator. There are no statements that come in the mail. Yet, these debts can linger for a lifetime. They choke the joy out of marriages and never seem to go away. There are four of these debts:
1. Guilt says: I owe you
2. Anger says: You owe me
3. Greed says: I owe myself
4. Jealousy says: God owes me
Guilt, anger, greed and jealousy—when we allow them into our homes and our hearts, everything gets turned upside down. Trickled all through the Bible, we find these four debts. They came into Abraham’s home. They are found in David’s palace. The Pharisees were plagued with these debts.
Unlike a financial debt, one doesn’t just pay these things off with a check and then he is done with it. No, these four debts have a way of creeping into our relationships, our faith and the way we see life. Sadly, it is possible for a person to have more than one of these debts. Anger and jealousy seem to fit together very nicely. And, somehow, these four debts find their way into the worship hour. What they do is distract us, worry us and ruin a perfectly good worship. Guilt will make me want to hide and avoid from some. Anger will make others want to hide and avoid me. Greed closes my eyes to the opportunity to help others. Jealousy leads to bitterness and not liking someone else.
There are lessons to be learned:
First, these four debts (guilt, anger, greed and jealousy) naturally lead to a much larger debt, sin. The debt of sin, as pictured in Matthew 18:24, is something that is impossible for us to pay back. The servant in that parable owed ten thousand talents, which would work out to being thousands of years of labor. No one can live that long. It was a hole so deep, no one could get you out. Only the blood of Jesus can help us.
It is important to see that guilt, anger, greed and jealousy are not just bad by themselves, but they ruin everything around me and they ruin my relationship with the Lord. One cannot be pleasing to the Lord as long as he allows any of these four to continually dwell in the heart. It’s time to call the note and kick these things out of our lives. Misery is what you can anticipate as long as these things hang around your heart. You don’t have to live this way. God made you for better things.
Second, so much of these debts center around things that really do not matter. Someone is driving a new car every year. And, your old junk car putters and sputters as you crawl down the roads of life. It’s only a car. Are you going to go in debt by inviting jealousy into your heart because he has what you don’t? Are you going to ruin your soul over a car? So he has a new car and you don’t. A new car won’t make you a better person and it won’t bring lasting joy. You might be happy for a little bit until someone dings it in the parking lot. Greed is centered on stuff. Count your blessings. Faith, family and a fellowship that loves you is more than what you can ever find in a store.
Third, an apostle in prison could tell those on the outside, “rejoice.” It’s not your circumstances, where you are, what you have, but who you are in the Lord that matters. God wants you to enjoy the life He has created for you. Guilt, anger, greed and jealousy will keep that from happening. We are a people who are Heaven bound. We have the greatest gift, forgiveness in Christ Jesus. The Lord loves us. It may be the reason so many are not smiling is because they have so much debt: guilt, anger, greed and jealousy.
Are you enjoying your faith? Are you glad to be a Christian? It’s a struggle when we drag along guilt, anger, greed and jealousy. There are Biblical ways to deal with each of those debts. Forgiving ourselves and burying the past in unmarked graves goes a long way in getting rid of these debts.
There may be many a person who on paper is in great shape financially, but their souls are nearly bankrupt with the enormous debt they are carrying in their hearts. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Roger