One thing I am learning lately is how immense God's love is. It has no end, and it never fails. The plan God devised to save all who believe in His Son is based on His love. That love toward believers is now seen as grace aimed at frail, unsteady humanity that persists, even though eternal salvation is guaranteed. God's love is so great it even wraps around His justice and righteousness...these are satisfied through the loving gift of Jesus Christ, prompted and completed by God Himself.
Because God's love projected a plan for man to be redeemed, even though we have failed miserably to do "good" as individuals and as a race, God's love for us operates without impediment, disregarding our failures except to use them as opportunities for Him to train us to trust Him and live with our focus on Him. His attention is on His Son's completed work, and that is where He wants our attention, as well. It is more important for us to see God's goodness, grace, and kindness, than for us to swell up and beam and look for God’s approval when we think we have done something good.
The work of Christ brings forgiveness...total removal of our misdeeds...making us perfect in God's eyes for all eternity. But while we are in these bodies, we will fail again and again. Studies that we are now conducting purport to give us victory over these failings, but we will continue to violate God's standards. And if we break one rule, we break them all, so we can never judge each other for our diverse sets of weaknesses. We all have them. We must be aware of our unique failings, and submit them to God, fully aware that the victory will never come through grim and set-jawed determination, but only by means of the grace which God offers.
This is why believers confess their sins. We can't stop messing up, so we continually confess, acknowledging that all good comes from God. This is humility, recognizing that we are dismal failures AT OUR VERY BEST, and that God can use even our sins and turn them to GOOD, if we expose them to Him and admit that we are inadequate to please Him in ourselves.
What generates MORE GOOD is MORE GOD, and LESS OF US. He is patiently waiting for us to abandon our petty, fleshly, often legalistic programs for satisfying Him, and for us to embrace the loving and gracious extensions that He makes. He offers forgiveness, and gives us strength so we can do better. But our humanity almost constantly overrides His divinity.
The point is singular and clear: We must count on His loving forgiveness for us to participate successfully in His plan, MORE THAN we count on our being good enough to satisfy Him. There's nothing wrong with our being the best that we can be, but our goodness is not the basis for our fellowship and harmony with our Creator. The basis for fellowship is grace and God's provision for our failure, more that it is our never failing.
So, if you fail--and you will, at times and in ways--don't waste your time agonizing over your failure. Your helplessness is well-established. Turn immediately to God. Confess. Acknowledge His love and grace and KEEP ON WALKING. Ps. 33:22: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."
Because God's love projected a plan for man to be redeemed, even though we have failed miserably to do "good" as individuals and as a race, God's love for us operates without impediment, disregarding our failures except to use them as opportunities for Him to train us to trust Him and live with our focus on Him. His attention is on His Son's completed work, and that is where He wants our attention, as well. It is more important for us to see God's goodness, grace, and kindness, than for us to swell up and beam and look for God’s approval when we think we have done something good.
The work of Christ brings forgiveness...total removal of our misdeeds...making us perfect in God's eyes for all eternity. But while we are in these bodies, we will fail again and again. Studies that we are now conducting purport to give us victory over these failings, but we will continue to violate God's standards. And if we break one rule, we break them all, so we can never judge each other for our diverse sets of weaknesses. We all have them. We must be aware of our unique failings, and submit them to God, fully aware that the victory will never come through grim and set-jawed determination, but only by means of the grace which God offers.
This is why believers confess their sins. We can't stop messing up, so we continually confess, acknowledging that all good comes from God. This is humility, recognizing that we are dismal failures AT OUR VERY BEST, and that God can use even our sins and turn them to GOOD, if we expose them to Him and admit that we are inadequate to please Him in ourselves.
What generates MORE GOOD is MORE GOD, and LESS OF US. He is patiently waiting for us to abandon our petty, fleshly, often legalistic programs for satisfying Him, and for us to embrace the loving and gracious extensions that He makes. He offers forgiveness, and gives us strength so we can do better. But our humanity almost constantly overrides His divinity.
The point is singular and clear: We must count on His loving forgiveness for us to participate successfully in His plan, MORE THAN we count on our being good enough to satisfy Him. There's nothing wrong with our being the best that we can be, but our goodness is not the basis for our fellowship and harmony with our Creator. The basis for fellowship is grace and God's provision for our failure, more that it is our never failing.
So, if you fail--and you will, at times and in ways--don't waste your time agonizing over your failure. Your helplessness is well-established. Turn immediately to God. Confess. Acknowledge His love and grace and KEEP ON WALKING. Ps. 33:22: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."
RSS Feed