Lessons from a Debit Card
One seemingly fine day I was operating on “business as usual” status, blissfully unaware that not everything was “as usual,” when my phone screen illuminated with my bank’s caller ID. I quickly picked up and was met with the following conversation.
“Hello. May I please speak with Tiffany Trometer.”
“This is she.”
“Hello, Miss Trometer. We’re calling because we’ve picked up some unusual activity on your account. Do you have a minute to confirm a few transactions for us?”
Did I have a minute? My increasing heart rate and furrowed brow matched my worried affirmative.
Pause. I’ll unfold more details in my story, but first I want to get you, the reader, thinking. Although you may not have had an experience just like mine, I am sure that you have felt emotions just like mine. Your normal routine comes up against an unexpected offense. You may not feel like you “have a minute” to stop and deal with whatever has happened, but here it is none-the-less and it must be dealt with. Unpause.
“It looks like some payments were made to a tech company. This doesn’t seem to match your usual activity. Would you please confirm that you did, in fact, authorize these purchases.”
“I did not. I am not familiar with this company and did not purchase anything from them.”
“Ok, thanks for confirming that. It looks like you’ve been hacked. We’re going to cancel your debit card and send you a new one.”
Thanks and pleasantries exchanged, I hung up aaaaand….freaked out. HACKED!?! How could this be? How scary! What was I going to do? Ok, several deep breaths and a long prayer later, I felt much calmer. My sense of calm wasn’t grounded in my circumstance. The debacle had occurred and was en route to being resolved, but that wasn’t what gave me peace. I often come back to the simple statement that God is trustworthy, or He’s not. He’s in control, or He’s not. If I am going to trust Him with anything, I can trust Him with everything. (Spoiler alert, the answer is that you can trust Him with everything.) The Lord brought the truth of Isaiah 26:3-4 to mind, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”
Here's another piece of information that will tie my point to my illustration. For various reasons I had been operating solely on a debit card, with no back up credit cards. Until my new card came in the mail, I would be functioning on the cash in my wallet, without access to my bank account. Thinking my card would be rushed, I figured there was no need to get to the bank and withdraw anymore cash.
In the ensuing days, I learned how dependent I was on my debit card. I navigated two business days, a weekend, and another business day waiting on my new card. While considering myself a financially fiscal person, I became aware how frequently I make quick, unscheduled stops and simply swipe without a care. Now, if you’re thinking that my message for you is on finances, it’s not. My message concerns forgiveness.
I was driving past the grocery and wanted to stop but realized I didn’t have enough cash and would need to wait. That’s when a big smile began to creep across my face. Here I was driving in my car with all the resources I needed in my bank account, but I wasn’t accessing any of it. Here is my lesson from a debit card.
Dear friends, we have every spiritual resource we need and so much more in Jesus Christ. Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, put it this way, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 1:3)
Right then I prayed out loud to my gracious heavenly Father, thanking Him that I never have to go without access to Him, that because of my standing IN CHRIST I have access to every spiritual blessing. That’s who my God is. The question then becomes, how often do I allow circumstances to upset or hinder me in my relationship with God or others because I fail to access my spiritual resources?
Forgiveness is not easy. At times it can seem that the more we do it, the harder it gets. I have fallen prey to many lies—
I can’t forgive.
It’s too hard.
The person doesn’t deserve it.
This time she has gone too far.
He’s not really sorry.
He needs to ask for my forgiveness first.
What she did is way worse than what I did.
I need to teach him a lesson.
Have you found yourself believing any of these? We must combat these lies with truth. Please prayerfully consider the following truths.
James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Luke 6:31-37 “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”
Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Luke 17:3-4 “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”
When you operate in your own strength, you will find that you are bankrupt. Your righteousness, my righteousness, any righteousness apart from Christ, is nothing better than filthy rags (Is. 64:6). I don’t have the strength to forgive. That is why I must run to Christ and implore His strength.
Ephesians 4:31-32 sets forth a seemingly impossible standard. Can you spot it? “…forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” How are we to forgive? “Even as God” we are to forgive. How has He forgiven? “For Christ’s sake.” I carry 1 John 1:9 in my heart. Listen to its freedom giving words, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The Father faithfully forgives me because of Christ. He is just in His forgiveness to me because of Christ. He cleanses me from all unrighteousness because of Christ. I can forgive because of Christ. As you go about your life and others sin against you, you will never experience peace if you believe that your limited cash of forgiveness will get you through. You must use the debit card, access your position in Christ and bask in the glorious richness of forgiving others because your are full to bursting with the knowledge that you have been forgiven so much.
When you consider that you have trusted Jesus with the eternal salvation of your soul because of His perfect propitiation for your sins how can you not reject the lies, believe the truth, and forgive those who trespass against you? He forgives your trespasses.
