Amount Due

We all know that when we use a credit card and don’t pay it off the next month, three things are likely….interest will be charged, the next month’s activity is going to make the balance bigger, and the company will keep sending those annoying monthly statements reminding what we owe, the added interest, and exactly when the payment is due each month.

Who are you sending “monthly statements” to? Where do you “charge interest” on someone’s “debt”? Who in your life do you consistently remind of what they “owe” to you?

Certainly, none of us would physically do this to anyone, but essentially we can create this process in our hearts. “Statements” originate from three places in us…

1—Unforgiveness

When we decide to not forgive someone, we create the statement. Then, we start adding debt and charging interest with everything the person does that we don’t like or agree with.

2—Entitlement

There are those in our lives whom we decide owe us for whatever reason. The issue with entitlement is even when a favor or “debt” is perceived to be owed, the person could have paid it back 3 times over, but entitlement can have an insatiable appetite and stay hungry until it is destroyed by its creator.

3—Enabling

This relationship is where one person is dominant, the other submissive, and together the two are needy and unhealthy. The vast majority of enabling relationships keep the debt growing, the interest mounting, and the statements piling up.

It’s important to say that in all three of these situations, just because we know the person doesn’t receive our statements anymore, doesn’t mean we’ve stopped sending them regularly. Because they’re created in the heart.

It’s also important to note that, unlike credit card statements sent privately to a person, the statements we send to others, over time, often become quite public and others start to “read our mail” too.

Inventory your life and your circles of relationship. Look hard at these three areas. Who are you sending statements to? Who are you charging interest on every action they make and every word they say? Who needs to be forgiven or set free today from your heart, so you can stop issuing statements for good? And the good news is you’ll  then be able to focus on getting out of debt yourself.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. —Matthew 6:12 NIV