Take The Money And Run!!!

I was recently blessed with a monetary gift. It was one of those moments you know God specifically spoke to them to help you. I say that because it was an answer to a thought versus a prayer. I thought that's what would help, but I never actually asked God for the help.

Well, within 30 minutes of receiving, I started thinking of ways I could "bless" this person back. I purposely put "bless" in quotations because blessings don't require a return action. They don't even require the words "thank you " to be said. Blessing is just what it implies; giving with no strings attached. So where I thought to bless back, was just a faux word for "pay back". How can I pay back this gift? And on that same note, paying back equates a debt and not a gift. My unrecognized mentality placed blessings and gifts in the same space as loans and debts.

Later on in the day, I pondered this some more. I was thankful I hadn't offered up my return blessing to them yet. I rethought whether I needed to. That's when I felt the Holy Spirit say "Take the money and run!" In no way was the Holy Spirit pushing me towards a dine and dash mentality. On the contrary, it meant take the blessing and run from condemnation. Receive the gift and don't turn it into a loan.

I believe many of us have indebted ourselves to things and people we were never meant to be indebted to. Racking up debts and loans of works is setting ourselves up for failure. We will exhaust ourselves and there is still no assurance we've done enough.

Romans 13:8 says "Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law."

I find it humorous, in that it's not random, that debt or obligations are mentioned in the same space as the law. Trying to pay back what you possibly can not symbolizes the law. There's no amount of good works that could fulfill the law. The law exposes our sin, but doesn't erase it. We could never be good enough or perfect enough to fulfill it. It is the whole reason we needed Jesus. He was the once and for all debt fulfillment of the law. But His payment for our sin was a gift, and not another debt.

Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this concept clearer. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast."

Jesus' death was His gift to us. Our only response needed is acceptance. Just like take the money and run, take the salvation and run. Stop thinking you can pay back God for something He freely gave. Stop trying to pay back others when they freely give. Release yourself from the stress and torment you create.

Now hours later I've come to a new conclusion. Maybe I will bless that person that blessed me and maybe I won't. However, it will not be connected to their blessing to me today. And when and if I do bless them, it will originate from love versus obligation.