"Pay What You Owe"

"Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor." Romans 13:7

As I opened the Bible resource where I get each morning's scripture from, I noticed the verse of the day. I thought it was "interesting/funny" that it was this verse above that talks about paying taxes given the fact that it is tax time here in the United States. In this verse we are told to pay what we owe. If you owe taxes, pay them. If you owe a bill, pay it. If you owe someone money, pay them. We should never try to get out of paying our debts- it's called integrity, and God's people should be people of integrity.

It also says that if someone is due honor or respect, give it to them. So what about the Lord? Doesn't that include Him? Doesn't He deserve honor? Are we giving Him the respect and honor that He deserves? We owe Him so much. We owe Him a debt of gratitude that we can never repay. But just because we can never repay it doesn't mean that we should forget the debt and take Him for granted. We should be giving Him the highest honor possible. We should be holding Him in high regard. We should honor Him above anyone and anything else.

How do we give Him honor? By giving Him what He is due- our love, devotion, worship and obedience. And we give Him our love, devotion, worship and obedience by keeping His commandments; by acknowledging Him in all that we do; by giving Him first place in our lives; by surrendering total control of our lives to Him; by being imitators of Him before the world; by being people who are following Him- His plan and His agenda- not our own.

As you are paying "what" you owe, make sure you are paying "all" that you owe, and all "who" you owe... including the Lord.

Have a great day. We should always pay what we owe, and first on our list should be the Lord.