I found this article on the Relevant Magazine site and wanted to share this excerpt:
"It’s easy to go on, speaking eloquent words about grace, especially when we don’t have to go before God asking for it. It’s easy to believe in grace, to believe in the gospel, when there have been relatively few blemishes along the way. It’s easy to repent of something like a lack of discipline, because after you ask for forgiveness you can conjure up a five-step plan of success. We can whip ourselves into being disciplined, with the help of God and our own strength. What isn’t easy is totally blowing it—putting on display our inability to be perfect. When you find yourself, dirty and messy and never whom you thought you’d be, that’s when you understand grace. And when you understand grace, that’s when you turn from the things that break you.
The most difficult part in all of this is that we have to go to God completely empty-handed and receive what can never be earned. It’s stunning to finally get to the place where we believe that no matter how often we pray, fast, meditate, study, and so forth, we will never ever be perfect.
It’s hard to live out a grace dependent life; we want to get to heaven by the work of our own two hands. It’s a hard pill to swallow- being really helpless and needy before the sight of God. He is not for feeling good or for comfort, but rather for life itself.
“Never forget where you came from and never forget what you’re capable of.”
May we refuse to forget where we came from and what we are capable of. May our words and actions be drenched in humility as we acknowledge our profound tendency to fall and sleep in the muck. Lastly, may we not believe the horrible lie that we will one day earn enough merit to get to Heaven. Let us lay our trophies down.
taken from Relevant Magazine {www.relevantmagazine.com}
HOW incredible is that?! I know it's something I need to hear daily.
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. -Galatians 6:1-5
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. -Galatians 6:1-5
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