Are you a spender or a saver?  One of my daughters loves to save her money and wait until she has a lot built up to buy a bigger item.  One of the others spends just about every dime she gets immediately.  Amazing how they are all so different!

There is a story in the Bible that Jesus told about a servant that went out and spent and spent and spent.  According to one source, he ran up a bill estimated to be roughly 27 years' worth of wages.  Take what you make and multiply it by 27.  Let's try $40,000 (not a huge salary); $40,000 * 27 years = $1.08 Billion.  That is a big bill.  Not very wise spending.

In the story that Jesus is telling (Matthew 18:21), this servant is blessed to have his debt forgiven…forgotten…cancelled completely!  Wow.  What a blessing.  Can you imagine having that weight off of your shoulders?  Really, think about it.  God has forgiven our debts…every cent that our sin has racked up.  He has wiped our slate clean.

Hopefully, this brings a couple of thoughts to your mind:

1)      Thanksgiving – are you thankful for God paying your debts?  There was no way this servant could repay that debt.  We are in the same boat…we could never repay God for the debt of sin that we have accumulated.

2)      Respect – once that burden of debt is lifted, you don't want to get into any more debt.  With our sins forgiven, we should be more careful about getting into sin.

Praise the Lord for His Forgiveness…think about your life…is there sin in it that needs forgiven?

Going further…Jesus used this parable to show how much God has forgiven, but also that disciples should forgive others (not speaking just in terms of financial debt, but in all aspects).

PB