Devotional #3
“The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.” - Matthew 18:27
Read Matthew 18:21-35
God, portrayed as the master in this parable, has forgiven us an enormous debt. Although there is some discrepancy over the exact value of a talent in modern times, it is thought to be the equivalent of about 20 years’ wages. The servant’s debt of 10,000 talents would have taken him roughly 200,000 years to pay off (about $3.5 billion in today’s currency).
Can you even begin to imagine what it would feel like to have that amount of debt hanging over your head?
And then to have it simply canceled outright, the cost assumed by someone else and paid for on your behalf?
It gives us just the faintest glimpse of what Jesus has done for us. Because God is Love and we are His beloved, He has bought us back at great cost to Himself. The moment Jesus says ‘It is finished,’ an impossible debt is simply erased from our account. We are covered by His righteousness and live forward with the breathing room that Jesus has purchased for us.
It is room to stop striving and start being, because we have no need to earn the love or approval of a God who who has already proven that He loves us perfectly. Room to be who we are, because God breathed us each uniquely into existence, and He doesn’t make mistakes. There is room for our differences and disagreements with others, because the same Breath of Life is in and surrounding us all. And room to stop carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders because the One who gave the Breath of Life will be faithful in sustaining it.
Questions to Consider:
What breathing room do you most need from God in your life right now?
Consider presenting your need to God today. And hear His response to you, “Paid in full!”