What Do You Need to Reconcile?

This past weekend I spent some time reconciling our bank statement. I opened my first bank account when I had my first part-time job at the age of fourteen. My father was the manager and later the president of a credit union. He made sure that I knew how to reconcile a bank statement. He taught me to make sure that the deposits and the checks I had written matched what was recorded in my check register. So for 63 years I have been reconciling my bank statements.

While it is important to make sure your finances are correct, there are some other things that it is more important to make sure they are reconciled. Let's begin with people. These persons may be family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, or any person with whom you have any type of connection. Jesus' words in Matthew 5:23-24 stress this to the point of leaving a religious activity to go reconcile with another person.

"So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there

remember that your brother has something against you, leave

your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled

to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

I believe that these words of Jesus also are applicable if you are the one that has something against another, go and apologize, make things right with that person. That is what reconciliation is with another person.

But there is even a more important relationship to reconcile. Every individual has a need to be reconciled to God. Our relationship with God is broken by our sin. We don't reconcile that broken relationship by doing more good things than bad. We don't have a way to purchase this reconciliation with cash, portfolios, or prestige. In fact, it is only through God's action that there is even a way for us to be reconciled to God.

How did God make reconciliation possible for us? Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21 how this reconciliation was made possible and John wrote the familiar words that verify the same clarification as to why God made a way in John 3:16-17.

"For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ

we might become the righteousness of God."

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through Him."

Does God's way through faith in Jesus Christ result in reconciliation between God and the person who puts his faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Again we turn in the Bible and find these words in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Reconciliation between people is desperately needed in our world. Families are divided; neighbors don't speak; friends are no longer friends; and nations go to war. Could it be that our separation from God because of our sin also impacts our relationships with the people around us? Is it possible that were each of us to be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, that we would find words to seek forgiveness, extend forgiveness, and be reconciled to the people around us?

Do you or someone you know need to take the next step to faith in Jesus Christ that you or they might be reconciled to God? The Bible also tells us that once we are reconciled to God, we are entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation. In other words, we are to share how others might be reconciled to God. If we took that responsibility seriously, I wonder how our world could change.

Have a thoughtful week as you consider to whom do you need to be reconciled.