As I sit here in my chair, after a long day of work, I'm contemplating all of the things that I've done in my life; things I'm not very proud of.
They run through my head like credits on a blockbuster screen, one by one. Almost never ending.
But then I stop and think: "Why am I worrying about all of these things? These wrongs that I've done?"
I will never have to worry about that long list ever again.
Jesus wiped that slate clean and I am declared free.
God's love and grace is amazing and everlasting.
I sometimes think of it like this:
If I was to hit you in the face, unwarranted, and unprovoked. But then I apologised you would probably accept my apology. Yes?
But here's the catch, I keep doing it.
Hitting, and then apologising over and over again. It'd get annoying hey?
And here's why God's grace is so amazing.
We replace God with you. My hitting is my sin.
Over and over again, I ask for God's grace over my life, and he gives it freely. No fine print, just free. He just keeps giving and giving, with no hesitations.
I continually sin, we all do. We offend God by sinning, but His love is so deep and his grace so wide that we can just ask for forgiveness at anytime and it is instantly given. None of this 'falling to your knees and begging for forgiveness' junk. All It takes is: "God, I know I've stuffed up, but I just ask for your grace in my life, and that you free me from sin."
It's so simple...
It's amazing.
I love the fact that we can just say that and every thing is gone. Our slate is wiped clean, and we are made holy.
We don't deserve God's grace, but he still gives it because he loves us.
The small effort we make to say that one sentence makes all of the difference in the world.
God is our friend, not our enemy; so why wrong him?
On another note:
People seem to think that being a christian is just "Ugh I'm a sinner, I better go and repent or something" It's so much more than that; It's about loving God because He loves us. It's about the fact the God sent his own son to die for us. It's about this amazing fulfilling relationship we can have with our creator. But one of the biggest things in my opinion is loving others. How can people see God's love if we cannot even love our selves?
Have a think about it.
It's 1am, so I apologise for my erratic and unstructured writing style.
God bless, and I hope you're all having a wonderful sleep.
And what I find amazing is.. forgiveness and grace does come at a cost, but not to the receiver but to the one giving. So all the effort is on God side.. what a gift!
ReplyDeleteMany people have trouble understanding God's forgiveness, because to seems to go against our nature, our need for justice or punishment.
But he does, he loves us, and we are to love others.. and yes, this means we need to _try_ and be like him.. forgive as we have been forgiven!
I am a sinner, and like everyone else I have trouble forgiving and letting go of grudges, especially myself, BUT I'll continue to work at it for once you get a revelation on the power of grace, how can you not! It's a journey, and I thank God everyday for letting me.. yes, even lowly old me, run it. And what's more we get the best support crew imaginable ;)
Matt