DAILY DEVOTIONAL – July 3, 2019

“Footing the Bill” 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we thank You that we can call you Father.  In our sinfulness we have given You every reason not to receive us or hear us or save us, but as Your Word reveals You are a God of love; You are love.  Thank You for not judging us according to what we have deserved but instead according to what Christ earned and did in our place on the cross.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture: Matthew 20:28

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Devotion – “Footing the Bill”

Most of us have probably heard or used the expression, “foot the bill.”  According to writingexplained.org, “This expression dates back to the early 1800s.  Foot can mean the bottom of something, such as the bottom of a mountain. In this idiom, it refers to the bottom of a column of prices on a bill.  Originally, footing the bill meant to add up the prices of different items on a bill and find the total cost. This total cost appears at the lowest part of the bill, or in other words, the foot of the bill.  Over time, this changed to mean [not only adding up the bill, but] covering the cost. Nowadays, this expression often implies covering a large bill, especially for someone else’s expenses, such as a son or daughter’s wedding.”

I spent some time looking up the history of this saying after I read a surprising story in the finance section of yahoo.com that also had to do with a large bill at a wedding.

Jessica Baker and her husband had RSVP’d and had every intention of going to a wedding they were invited to.  The invitation to the wedding specifically stated that it was a “no kids allowed” wedding.  So, Jessica had arranged for her mother to watch her daughter.  Unfortunately, on the day of the event circumstances resulted in Jessica’s mom not being able to watch their daughter, so Jessica and her husband had no choice but to stay home and send their regrets to the newly married couple.

A couple weeks after the wedding, Jessica received a bill from the newly married couple.  The total at the foot of the bill was $75.90; $60 total for the herb-crusted walleye she and her husband requested in their RSVP, plus a $7.95 fee for tax and another $7.95 for the service charge.  At the bottom of the bill was written the following message.  “This cost reflects the amount paid by bride and groom for meals that were RSVPed for, reimbursement and explanation for no show, card, call or text would be appreciated.”

I gotta tell’ya friends, I am not sure where I would even begin with the litany of responses I would have if a friend or family member close enough to invite me to their wedding asked me to “foot the bill” for the wedding dinner I couldn’t eat because I had to deal with unexpected childcare emergencies.

Could you imagine if God were to ask us to “foot the bill” for the costs we have imposed on Him?  What number would we find at the foot of a bill from God that itemized every offense, every sin, every missed opportunity to do good, every bad thought or word and every wrong?  God sent His only Son Jesus to foot the bill and pay for our sins.  Jesus literally “footed” our debt to God by submitting Himself to the cross we deserved and by having the nails driven into His feet and hands instead of into our hands and feet that committed the sins He bled and died for.

There is not one of us that could afford to foot the bill for our own sins.  The number would be eternally inconceivable.  We could no more total up the cost of our sins than we could remember and itemize every sin we ever committed.  We have nothing of ourselves to offer God or that could ever repay Him for the gift of His Son Jesus.  There is no number high enough and no life righteous enough that would satisfy the debt we owe, and it is precisely because of this fact that we call God’s love and grace, amazing.

It is because we have nothing in ourselves to offer God that we stand amazed in awe and in wonder of the fact that God did not send us a bill to foot.  Instead of sending us a letter demanding we pay God the debt of righteousness we owe Him, God wrote a letter saying that He has already sent His Son Jesus to settle our debt.  That letter from God says in John 3:16, “I so love you that I have given My only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

We have all sinned and brought death to what God made to live.  We owe God a life, our life, and God would have been completely justified in collecting that debt from us personally.  But God so loves us, that He sent Christ to give His perfectly righteous life in place of ours.  As Jesus Himself said in our Scripture for today, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Christ paid our ransom, our debt to God, and by faith in Christ as our only Savior and Redeemer, not only are we given eternal life but God now sees us as righteous in His eyes for the sake of His Son.

We could never give God the gifts He deserves or offer Him anything of value, and yet, because of His Son Jesus and through faith in Christ as our worthy sacrifice, God hears our prayers and receives our worship and only asks that we trust Him and love Him for the wonderful things He has done for us.  God is pleased with us when we rely on Jesus our Lord to offer God all that He deserves and when we live our life in faith toward Him and in love toward one another.

God bless you my friends, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.