What if I owed Jesus for my restoration, healing, and forgiveness? How would I pay Him? As soon as I made progress and lowered my debt ratio, I would make a huge mistake and my balance would once again soar through the roof. There’s no way. But when I look at others, I expect there to be a way. Surely they owe God something, or at least they owe me, for what they did…right?

And maybe if they apologized enough I would be refilled. Or if they filled my love bank back up, I could move forward. But they don’t. And even if they did, would it ever be enough?

When someone hurts us it’s easy to harbor unforgiveness because our love bank is waiting to be repayed. They took something from us – joy, peace, innocence – and we want it back. So we refuse to let go of the bitterness. As if somehow this root of bitterness will eventually stranglehold them into an apology. But often, it doesn’t, and even if it did, an apology only heals when we follow it up with forgiveness.

If you are waiting on an apology to move forward with your life, maybe it’s time to let go. An apology is not permission to forgive. It’s nice to have for sure, but you don’t need it to be set free. In fact, the debts not even owed to you. The debt for sin committed is owed to your Master, Lord Jesus, and with Christians, He’s already cleared the debt. So maybe we should too.

There’s no way to repay some debts. That’s why God offers forgiveness in the first place. Some people will never be able to make up for the hurt they vaulted upon you. But they don’t have to, because Jesus did. Let Him be your Lord, Master, Adonai. He’s in charge of your love debt to income ratio and He’s got enough love to rebuild your emotional finances. In Him, we have all the strength to forgive and move forward in love that we could ever need.