How do you feel about going into debt?
If you've lived in Rome long enough, you've had surprise bills, traffic tickets, fines, or dues show up in your mailbox. Discovering that I owe anyone money can be embarrassing and even frustrating.
In King David's prayer of confession and repentance, he says something illuminating. He says, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." - Psalm 51:3. He asked for God's cleansing forgiveness because he knows his sin. It bothers him. In Psalm 32, he describes how when he was silent about his sin, it felt like his bones were wasting away. Maybe your monetary debt has brought fear, insecurity, even frustration. But what about your spiritual debt?
When Jesus teaches us to pray daily, "forgive our debts," what do you feel? I can find it hard to feel remorse, guilt, or shame when I am not regularly abiding in Jesus. If I'm not in his Word, in prayer, or in community where I'm honest with my Christian brothers and sisters, I can become calloused to the discord that my sin causes in my relationship with God...and other people.
The apostle Paul describes the good grief that the Corinthian Christians felt over their sin in 1 Corinthians 7:9-11. Take a look and see if any of this describes your experience with sin. If not, why do you think that is? If so, lean into what Paul calls godly grief. It leads to repentance, something essential for life as a disciple of Jesus, living alongside his other disciples.
Together for your joy,
Loren
