"I Reckon"

What do you think of when you hear the phrase, "I reckon?"

Does this guy pop into your mind?

"I reckon me and Bessy'll be headin' down to the waterin' hole in a bit," or "I reckon I might could do that. I's fixing to head down yonder anyhoo."

The phrase has sort of been reserved for hillbillies and country folk, right?

Have you ever had one of those moments where something in the Bible makes sense to you for the first time? Almost like a revelation? That happened to me a long time ago when it came to this verse:

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. " Romans 6:11 (NKJV)

I always knew what the verse meant, but one day I kind of giggled to myself as I thought, "Well, shucks, I reckon I'll do just that!" That got me thinking, what does it mean? Where does the work "reckon" come from? Is there some deeper meaning to this verse?

Then I had that little revelation moment. Reckon = reconcile. Like a checkbook! This has helped me ever since then in my walk, and since it came to my mind again today, I thought I'd share it.

When we reconcile our checkbooks, what do we do? We go through and calculate all of the deposits and withdrawals from our bank accounts, checking to see which charges have cleared, which have yet to clear, and what we have available to us right now. There may be $100 in my account right now, but if I have a $25 check that hasn't hit yet, I have to conduct myself as if I only have $75. Even though there is actually $100 in there presently. We act as though that money is not there.

Now, apply that to sin. When we reckon ourselves dead to sin, we have to conduct ourselves as if sin is not present in the bank account of our lives. We subtract sin from our register. And even though we may sin from time to time, even though the temptation may still be there, we act as though that sin is dead. Much like we would say, "Nope, I can't buy that (insert coveted item here), I only have $75," we have to go about our day thinking, "Nope, I can't do that. I don't have sin in my life." I'm dead to sin. Reconciled!

There's another bonus part to this, too. The word "reconcile" has more than one meaning. We've talked about checking a financial account for accuracy. But there's also the "reconcile" that means "to restore to friendship or harmony; reconcile differences."

And when we "reckon" ourselves dead to sin, isn't it funny how our relationship with God is brought into harmony?

So when you wake up tomorrow morning, be sure to look yourself in the mirror, shine your best hillbilly smile and reckon to go about your day without that sin negatively affecting your account, er, life. Hope that's encouraging!