Romans 11:35...

"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"

is cross-referenced in my NIV back to Job 41:11 which says,

"Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me."

When I studied Romans last year, this verse stood out to me loudly. I remember as a child always borrowing money from my parents for this and that. My parents were not believers of the allowance movement. I recall very clearly the conversation with my dad when I screwed up my courage to ask for an allowance only to be told that since they provided room and board and clothes and various other sundry things, that an allowance didn't come with those given privileges. When the conversation quickly turned to the suggestion that I even begin to pay for those things, well, I knew where my room was--and I went there.

When I was old enough to babysit, that income became bread and butter for the extras that I wanted. However, I was not a good money manager at all. To this day I can barely remember one lasting thing that I spent those dollars and cents on with almost no sense at all. Oh, I tried to keep track. I had this little notebook to write down what I had made at the Bratsters and the Spoileds. Babysitting gigs can be real blood money work.

But it was the writing down what I spent the money on that I sorely lacked. At the store I would be sure to tell myself that I would remember exactly how much the leg-warmers cost or the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. Sheer fuzziness and gold glittery topstitching would confuse me by the time I got home, and nothing was written down. I only usually remembered the notebook when I would check my nest egg to find it empty and go to Dad with hand held out to ask for $10.00.

He would grimace, of course, and then require that I write down the "loan" in my notebook. Gradually the "loan" column outstretched the income column to the point that I would throw my hands up and cry, realizing that I was a bankrupt 15 year old owing money to my parents for the next 27 years.

Knowing my debt to the Lord is much more significant. He has given so much to me that even with Bill Gates' income at compounded interest, I could not repay Him. This verse reminds me so very clearly of how great my debt is to Him.

I'm guilty of getting my rights in a wad and believing myself to have given ooooooh soooooo much to the Lord in big and small ways. I write down in my heart all the ways I've served, all the people I've taught, all the sacrifices I've made, and then this verse wipes it clean away as completely as the Lord wipes away my arrogant sin.

I've done nothing for God that He did not prepare in advance for me to do to His glory (Eph. 2:10) I only serve to get in the way of His plan when I believe it to be mine. That He would use me, a crumpled wad of pitiful plans and ideas, is just more evidence of His great mercy in all that He has done for me.

Glory to His Name!