If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

This morning I am praising God for a HUGE answered prayer and meditating on forgiveness.

I spent part of this morning on the phone with my student loan servicer – and I know, if you have student loans, you might be wondering how I can be praising God after that kind of call.

But oh friends, what a call and what a blessing the customer service agent was on the other end of the line!

You see, when I left my position in state government in 2022, I only had 16 payments left on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) plan. I tried to make my own way to walk in the path God was calling me to and stay in public service for another 16 months, but none of those efforts worked out and I realized I had to take the next step God’s way. I left government service knowing I was delaying or possibly losing that forgiveness opportunity. But at the time, everyone’s loans were on hold due to Covid-19, so the financial strain was a “down the road problem” making my step of faith a little easier.

Now, down the road is exactly where we are. Student loan payments are restarting, and I’m not a public servant, so I had to change my payment plan. In August, the first repayment plan my servicer sent me based on my previous income was nearly $700 a month. That was nearly double what my previous payment plan had been – when I made substantially more money. Fear clenched my stomach, my lungs, my heart…and my mind began to reel.

We couldn’t afford that at all. Not even half that probably. Should I go back to work? What were we going to do? Had I heard God wrong and left my position too soon? Why was it so much more when I make so much less?

Over the past few months, I prayed, and I prayed, and I read every article about loan forgiveness I could get my hands on. No answers. No forgiveness in sight. So, today, a week before the first payment of nearly $700 should pull, I broke down and called my servicer. It took a while to get through and in the end I opted to have them call me back rather than sit on hold. Two hours passed. I prayed, and I cleaned house, and I prayed some more, and I tried to write but couldn’t, so I prayed some more.

And then the phone rang. And all I can say is that the conversation that unfolded blessed my socks off. I was able to witness of God’s faithfulness in this journey we’re on, and I found out that the recent changes to student loan payment plans make repayment much more affordable than what I had originally been sent. The customer service representative helped me get the right plan and the right payment, and she told me that forgiveness is still on the table even though I’m in a new plan, it’s just a little farther down the road than it had been before.

Truly, God is teaching me to live day by day on His provision. One day those loans may be forgiven after I make X amount more payments, but you know, a political change may also come and throw me right back into a lifetime of payments and financial hardship. Who knows?

What I do know is I’m not going to worry about that because it’s “down the road”, and God is in control today, tomorrow, and forevermore. He’s providing today, and He’ll provide tomorrow.

And sweet friends, I’m so very thankful that God’s forgiveness isn’t based on X amount of payments or works or whatever. I’m thankful that Jesus paid the debt for all of my sin, and all of your sin, all at once.

I’m thankful that when I called upon Jesus as my Savior as a young woman, He forgave all of my sin, wiped it out completely, as far as the east is from the west. No change in my circumstance will bring that debt back into my present or into my future. Nothing the enemy does can bring it back up either. In Christ, we are sin debt free indeed!

I’m thankful that God’s forgiveness isn’t something “down the road”, but is available right now and in ten minutes and forevermore.

God answers prayers, friend. God provides all we need, eternally and in the here and now. He provides all we need spiritually and physically. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good!