Spiritual health and bankruptcy

A game of Monopoly

Have you ever enjoyed a game of Monopoly?
Or should I say, have you ever endured a game or two?
It can be exciting if you’ve got a lot of property with hotels and houses.
It is also good, if you’ve got some property with a house or two, and therefore you’ve got a slim chance of winning.

But if you’re the one with no sets of properties, then your fate is certain!
Whether you survive for the next two minutes, or another hour, it doesn’t really matter, because you know what the outcome will be.
You are going to end up BANKRUPT, and you’ll lose.
There is not the slightest glimmer of hope.
Sooner or later, you are going to land on Park Lane, or something similar.
But thankfully Monopoly is just a game.
When the board is packed away, that is the end of the matter.

But being bankrupt in real life is a terrible thing

And there is a lot of it happening because of the current economic climate.
What do I mean by being bankrupt?
Basically, it is when you OWE much more than what you OWN, not just what is in the bank account and your savings, but also the value of everything you own.

Does God ever put us in difficult situations?
Is there anything that will help us make better decisions?
What is our goal in life, where are we heading?

Still there is this huge gap, this debt that needs paying back.
And it is a stark and bad place to be. Many people are in difficult situations and suffer hardships.
But there is something far more awful and dangerous:

Spiritual bankruptcy

How many of us are in debt to Almighty God?
Whether we realise it or not, we are in debt to Him.
We are utterly bankrupt before Him.

Our conscience tells us that we’ve got no peace with Almighty God and that we’re in trouble with Him.
Our conscience knows God’s laws.
He put a conscience in each one of us, to accuse or defend our actions, and thoughts, in relation to His laws.

If we are spiteful, or unkind, or whatever, the conscience gives us a feeling of guilt.
It is nothing to do with Victorian values, or an out dated morality.

The conscience has been put in us by God.
We ignore our conscience at our peril!
If we do, it will become weaker, and more difficult to hear.
If we persist in this then we can totally kill off our conscience (see an article on our conscience).

What causes this debt?

Is it not our sin?
Our wrong actions, and thoughts?
Our ungratefulness to God?
Our disobedience to His laws?
Take what Jesus said for example:

Love the Lord your God, with ALL your heart,
and with ALL your soul,
and with ALL your mind.
And love your neighbour as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37

Do we obey that command?
The Lord can help us to love him, he does not expect us to do this on our own.

What is our response to what Jesus says?
Are we taking an aggressive attitude?
Do we say: ‘I don’t want to hear that!’
And so we walk away from God in disobedience?
And the debt we owe God mounts up and up.

How are we going to pay that debt?

We are in a hopeless mess, if we are without God in this world.
All our money, our possessions, our knowledge, cannot deliver us from this problem.
Psalm 49 tells us:

A person can never redeem himself;
he cannot pay God the price for his life,
because the payment for a human life is too great.
What he could pay would never be enough to keep him from the grave, to let him live for ever.”

It is impossible for us to save ourselves.

But ALL things are possible WITH God!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the price to redeem us from our spiritual bankruptcy.
And what was the price He paid?
The price was paid with the blood of God’s Son.
The saving payment for a human life is too great – EXCEPT for God!
He died for all those who believe.

Surrender to Jesus Christ and trust Him for your salvation.
Believe that Christ has paid the price for you, and that He has redeemed you.
You will THEN have peace with God and you will no longer be His enemy.

How to feel happy and just feel better.
Temptation comes through these different things…
What gives meaning to life? Perhaps surprisingly the Bible does still speak to millions of people.
A story of abuse turning good: ‘Cruel sneers to a single flower’.
Can we rely on our ‘goodness,’ to get us to heaven?
Baptism is often problematic in practice and divisive between the denominations.
Here’s a few Bible verses that help to give a stability in our lives.
There is a ‘Recall Notice’ on the human race!

Image of scales thanks to ‘The Pictorial Dictionary’ published by The Educational Book Company, London