The Bank of Just Return

Take a moment to consider this.

Have you ever thought, or do you think now, that Life owes you something, or even, that in some way, God owes you? (though you may be reluctant to say that out loud)
Do you ever expect or hope for a return on life's hardships?
I mean, that life has been unfair and you've been slipping credit slips into your Bank of Just Return in the city of Fairplay.
Have all the sacrifices you've made in life been free, or have they been made with an unconscious expectation of payback? You thought you were denying yourself, but actually you've been investing in a savings account that is earning interest. Eventually you hope to make a withdrawal, or cash in your investment. That expectation of payback, of reward for all your sacrifice, makes it impossible for you to die to self. You know there is a reward in heaven, but you've got a major investment here as well, one that has been accruing interest and you aren't ready or willing yet to give it up, or lose it.

Your sacrifice wasn't really a sacrifice by death, but a transfer of reward to a later time. If you are coming to this process already in the habit of sacrificing your needs because you think you don't matter, you may be trying to redefine that as dying to self. They are not the same thing. Does your dying leave you feeling crushed, hopeless, discouraged? You may be trying this backwards. You can't die to self, unless you are sure of the life that you have in Jesus, otherwise, there is no hope in death. Only the life of Jesus in us has the capacity to sacrifice, expecting nothing in return.

Death requires a sacrifice of debt, because a dead man can't get paid.
Owing or being owed is a form of bondage.
Christ did not come to you that way, He gave His life to pay your debt, so that you can live freely in Him. What gain can you get from this life that could compare to that? Really! There is nothing this world has to offer that can satisfy like Christ Jesus. Trust Him to satisfy all your needs, to love you as you've never known love before, to submerge you in His grace and mercy.
"If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3: 1-3

Are you clinging to what life owes you?
Are you holding out because you need to know the reward first, to know what's in it for you?
Are you holding God on a tight leash?
Are you convinced that you matter so much to Christ, that He was willing to purchase you with His blood, and that before God, you stand accepted in Him?
Are you crazy?
What could you ever get from this life in the flesh that could improve on or be better than that?
Or as Paul said it,

"I press on 

in order that I may lay hold of that 

for which also I was laid hold of 

by Christ Jesus"

 Philippians 3:12

Start crosswalking today and everyday,
being owed nothing
and "owing nothing except to love one another".
Romans 13:8