Challenge: Freedom of Trust

…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.  Col 2:14 NASB

Those of you familiar with our life right now know the heavy burden of material debt that is on us with the house in MS since we have lost our renters.  We can’t rent it or sell it.  Since we don’t live in it, it is automatically considered investment property, and none of the homeowners’ mortgage assistance programs apply to us.  So, this debt hangs heavily over us like a crushing weight.

Reading this verse reminds me how relatively small this house debt is.  We did have a debt of life and there was absolutely no way we could pay it.  We just think we can’t pay this mortgage debt.  Our inability to pay the life debt was infinitely greater.  It was impossible.  Period.  But there was One who not only could pay, He willingly chose to do so – He paid it with His life. 

That one crucial act allows me to walk in perfect freedom.  Unfortunately, I don’t always choose to do so.  I still allow myself to be weighed down by the much smaller debts that really have no power over me.  The God who paid the ultimate debt can handle these little ones, too.  He just asks me to trust Him.  The problem is that I so frequently don’t trust.

Some days I roll the burden of this debt on to Him easily.  Other days, like today, I am so overwhelmed by it that even the word trust seems foreign.  But that doesn’t change the challenge.  The challenge remains to walk in the freedom that comes from the fact that my life debt is paid.  To trust that the God who completely moved that debt out of the way is faithful, period.  The thread of faith is very stretched and thin today, but it still exists, and I must still cling to it.  I must walk in the freedom of trust, even when trust itself seems impossible.