Are You Repaying What You Owe?

Are You Repaying What You Owe?
The need for people to honor their father and mother is compelling. Every parent sees the need for parental authority as expressed in Eph. 6:1, “Children obey you parents…” This is not just a control thing, but for the good of the child while he is immature and unable to provide for his own needs. Even rebellious children see later in life that their parents rules; “Don’t play with matches, don’t play in the road, don’t use drugs!” was for their own best interest. Even irreligious people can see the logic in repaying their parents(1 Timothy 5:4) as they grow older and are unable to care for themselves. I wonder how I could ever repay my mother for giving me birth, for caring for my every need as a baby, for making my life her life in my growing up years. Her love and care for me never stopped through all my years. And Dad fought in WW II for my freedom before I was born, worked long hours at a hot and difficult job, not for his pleasure, but that I could have the provisions I needed and wanted. They both sacrificed to pay the heavy expense of my college education. How could I ever forget how they went beyond anything expected? When Susan and I married, we started out buying furniture and appliances on credit. We paid on it a year and the next year were given paperwork for Christmas- a paid off bank note for our furnishings. I owe them so much. I know not all parents are like mine, but I’m convinced that most of them sacrificed far more for us than we realize. Perhaps you can see why we should pay our parents back for the love that they offered freely.
But even if your parents were not attentive to your needs, have you thought about what God has provided for you? It is amazing how so few of us see a need to even have a relationship with Him, let alone have a sense of how we can never pay him back for all he has done. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” Surely you realize that there must have been a creator. Many in our day are like the Romans who ignored God, as if he wasn’t there. Paul said, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:20-21). Some make fun of a belief in an “invisible” God. Do you believe that there is any “visible” force or intellect in this universe that was capable of making all that is here? Of course not! God made the heavens and earth(Gen. 1:1). You and I should worship and praise and thank Him for all that he has given us.
Paul reminded the Greeks, who had many concepts of God, the true God could not be of “gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.” (Acts 17:29). They had an idol to the “Unknown God.” Paul taught them about the true God. Which one? The one that had given them life. Consider what he said, “Acts 17:23-29, “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: [24] God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.’” Acts 17:24-28(NKJV). Yes, whether you admit it or not, he made you. You are His and he should be honored by you. He has given you all. He gave his only begotten Son that you might have life. You can learn more of this wonderful God in his book, the Bible.
Those of us who already have faith in God should not forget the all encompassing words of Paul- “in Hm we live and move and have or being.”
How wonderfully the words of the song, “He Is My Everything,” by Earnest Clevenger, Jr. capture what God should be to me:
“He is my everything, he is my all,
He is my everything, both great and small,
He gave his life for me, made everything new,
He is my everything, no how about you?
Some folks may ask me, some folks may say,
“Who is this Jesus you talk about every day?
He is my Savior, he set me free.
Now listen while I tell you what he means to me.
He is my everything, he is my all,
He is my everything, both great and small.
He gave his life for me, made everything new.
He is my everything, Now how about you?”

John recorded it this way, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” (Rev. 21:6-7).
He should be my all- my beginning and my ending:
Thoughts of him should begin and end my every day.
Thanks to him should surround my every action.
He should be the first place I go for help and the last place I go for strength.
Ideally, His church should be the first public place I went as a baby, and the last place I am able to go before death.(Have you noticed how some can go everywhere but to the Lord’s house?) My God should the first thing I learn of as a babe, and the last thing I think of as the shadows of death creep around me. Why? Because “He is my everything, He is my all.” David Courington