Deuteronomy 23:21: When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God,
thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require
it of thee; and it would be sin in
thee.
In 2 Kings 4:1 –
7, is the story of a woman who was in big debt. The creditors told her
they were going to take her two sons as slaves to cater for her debts.
She ran to meet to the man of God- Elisha, who gave her an instruction
to go and borrow some vessels and fill it with the oil left. After she
did she came back to the prophet and he advised her to go and first pay
her debts and live on the rest. This passage shows God’s attitude to
debts. The woman was advised to first go and pay her debt which means
God took the business of paying her debt as urgent and a priority. Today
we should learn from this. When we owe people let us make every effort
to pay the debts even if it means we will not eat! If the money is not
available lets still be in contact with those we owe money to and
re-assure them that we will pay, not ignore them or begin to run. When
people out of mercy lend us things or money, when they ask for their
money back let us not do the wicked thing of getting angry at them. Many
do that , they get angry when the people who have lend them money ask
for the money back and some take it to another level by deciding not to
pay the money. According Psalm 37:21, it is an act of wickedness to
borrow and not pay back! When you owe financial institutions please pay
them back. Also when people lend us things let us endeavor to return
them back on time and in good condition. It is not nice when people lend
us things and they have to beg to get them back from us. Do you know it
is a debt not to testify to the goodness of God in your life? Every
time God does something for us, we owe Him a thank you and the thank you
He expects from us is to share the testimony.
We have heard
this saying from time to time, Promise is a debt. A promise is not only a
debt but unfulfilled promise is a sin! Deuteronomy 23:21 says when thou
shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it:
for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin
in thee. When you make promises to people, do everything in your power
to fulfill them. The same thing applies to God. Many of us have made
vows to God that if only He will let us pass an exam we will do this for
Him, If only He will give us a child, If only He will get us a job, if
only He will get us the promotion, if only He will get us the visa, If
only He will deliver us, if only He will do this and that …. The
shocking thing is many of us have not redeemed the pledge we made to Him
years ago. So as not to hold it against us as sin, He reminds us from
time to time and what do we do? We say it is true and never do anything
about it.
ACTION POINT: Put measures into place to pay your
debts, if you have been running from people you owe money to, contact
them and let them know you are making efforts to pay the debts.
Psalm 20:3 says may He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice.
In Acts 9:36-42 is the famous story of Dorcas. She loved the Lord and
loved helping people. She helped the sick, the broken hearted and
everyone who needed help around her. When she died , they sent for Peter
.When Peter arrived they began to show him the good works Dorcas had
done . Peter seeing all these had no other option than to beg God to
release her from heaven back to earth and God answered. From reading
this story, we see God relaxing His rule for Dorcas. As a matter of fact
the bible says in Hebrew 9:27 that it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this judgment. The same God who declared that it is
appointed unto men to die once had to suspend this rule because of
Dorcas’ credit with Him. When we talk of credit with God, we are not
talking of tithe and offering. We are talking of something major the
Lord can look at and decide a case in your favour.
A king who
had good credit with God was Hezekiah. The bible records in 2 Kings
18:2-6 that he did what was right in the sight of God. Verses 5 and 6 of
2 kings 18 says He trusted in the Lord God Israel, he held fast to the
Lord and did not depart from following God but kept God’s commandment
which the Lord had given through Moses. On his death bed in 2 Kings
20:1-6, God was so happy with his service that he added another fifteen
years to his life. This brings us to the question, can God look at our
walk with Him and decide to add fifteen years to our life. Have we
served God to the extent that he will relax some of his rule? It is a
rule that whoever sees God will die but because of Moses’ credit with
God, God arranged a way for Moses to see Him without seeing death. As
big as the bible is, there is only a record of God leaving heaven to
dine with a family and that was the family of Abraham in Genesis 18.This
happened because of Abraham’s record with God. He had touched God with
his faith. It is not an easy task to convince God to come and dine with
us, but it is something that can happen if we are prepared to work hard.
ACTION POINT: Take your service to God to another level today, so that you can have good credit with Him.
