There is a quiet way we sometimes pray that sounds spiritual but carries a calculator in its pocket.

Lord, I have served. I have given. I have stayed faithful. Now I need You to come through.

We rarely say it out loud. But disappointment can expose it. Somewhere deep down, we assumed heaven keeps receipts.

Paul asks a question that clears the air. “Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” Romans 11:35.

Who has ever put God in their debt?

The answer is almost gentle in its simplicity. No one.

That question is not a rebuke. It is a rescue. If God owed us, then faith would be a contract. We perform. He pays. We obey. He reimburses. Prayer becomes an invoice, and obedience becomes leverage.

But the gospel does not run on wages. It runs on mercy.

Earlier in Romans 11, Paul speaks of mercy given to all. Mercy is not negotiated. It does not arrive because we met a quota. It rises from the deep riches of God’s wisdom and love. It is gift, not paycheck.

When we begin to bargain with God, we shrink grace down to our size. We turn a Father into a bookkeeper.

Now obedience matters. Generosity matters. Faithfulness matters. Scripture is clear that God sees and rewards. But His reward is never the settling of an account. It is the overflow of His heart.

Look at the cross. You did not move first. You did not make the opening deposit. “We love him, because he first loved us” 1 John 4:19. Before you prayed a single prayer, Christ stretched out His hands. Before you understood grace, grace understood you.

That reframes everything.

Instead of praying, Lord, You owe me, we begin to pray, Lord, You owe me nothing, yet You have given me everything in Christ. I bring this need to You, and I trust Your wisdom with the outcome.

That shift is small in wording but massive in freedom.

It loosens the tight grip of entitlement. It quiets the inner argument. It turns anxiety into surrender and surrender into worship.

Paul does not end Romans 11 with a spreadsheet. He ends with praise. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans 11:36.

Not from me and back to me. From Him. Through Him. To Him.

You are not managing a contract with God. You are living inside grace. And grace is sturdier than any bargain. It holds when the diagnosis is unclear. It holds when the door does not open. It holds when the prayer is answered differently than you hoped.

God is not your employee. He is your Creator, your Redeemer, your Father.

He does not act because you cornered Him with your record of service. He acts because He is merciful. He answers because He loves.

That is better than repayment. It is better than reimbursement.

It is mercy.