Are You in the Black?

I accidentally overpaid my A.T.&T. bill. Don't ask me how. So this month, the nice company sent me a bill with a credit and instructions: Do Not Pay!

Not only did I owe them nothing, but they owed me!

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Nothing makes your day like learning you have a credit to your account. You're paid up into the future. You can breathe a little easier, even forget about it for a while. You're "in the black."

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Imagine knowing your life balance was "in the black." All your failures, your mistakes, your outright rebellion, all those debits had been balanced by the staggering figure on the credit side. You are paid up into the future.

Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. The power of this sentence lies in that little word "credited." In Hebrew, the word is chashab. In the Greek it is logizomia. Sometimes translated "reckoned" or "imputed," it is an accounting term implying that a balance is "in the black."

Think about that a minute.

It says nothing about the good works Abraham did, the money he donated, or the nation he started. It also does not mention the lies he told, the adultery he participated in, or the zillions of little sins he committed all his life just because he was human. He was considered righteous by God because he believed.

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Our lives are like an accounting ledger. The debits go on down the page, line after red line. Debt after debt, cost after cost, our deeds pile up. The good works we manage every now and then don't seem to make a dent on the black side. We become painfully aware that nothing we can do will even it up. We just seem to make things worse.

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God is painfully aware of our ledger sheet as well. And he agrees with us. There is nothing we can do to even things up.

So he started giving extra credit.

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Jesus said, "Whoever believes in Me will have eternal life."(John 3:15)

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"I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:46)
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The mistake many people make is in thinking that this is easy credit. Our government is learning the hard way that there is no such thing as "easy credit." It may seem easy to obtain, but someone has to pay.
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The kind of "believing" Abraham did is an action word. Abraham did not just nod in agreement with God's idea, he packed up and moved.

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And if we want to accept God's offer to credit our account by simply believing, we too must pack up and move. We move from our position of self-reliance, self-admiration, and self-seeking and follow God's plan for our lives.
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And that's it.
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The long list of red entries is suddenly balanced by a thick black entry on the Credit side. We are paid up into the future.
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When we show up with checkbook in hand, God will say, "You can't possibly pay this, but your debt is canceled. I've already credited your account."
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When we mention our long list of red entries, He simply rips them up and points to the lone entry on the credit side: You believed in Me.
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Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? It had to be. We would never have made it on our own.
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So what items still glare at you from your life's balance sheet? Do they seem overwhelming? No way to pay them off?
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Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. God is waiting to do the same thing for you.
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Don't believe me? Just ask Him.
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