The Grace Place

If the Lord’s grace was inadequate to cover any portion of your past, present, or future sin; you would be without hope; Calvary REALLY DID cover it all. You don’t have to fix anything, earn anything, or prove anything in order to abide in His grace right now and for every minute for the rest of your existence, which is eternal because of Him. 

You can give up the fear-push to obey, the “If I don’t get my act together and start doing things right something terrible is going to happen to me and I’ll deserve it” dynamic. You can give that up completely and just revel in His grace. The backwash of such grace (of really believing it and the wonderful freedom of living in it) is incredible love and gratitude for Him who purchased this freedom for You at great cost. This is the grace place; the source from whence true obedience can flow.

Discipline and obedience seem to be restrictive things but in truth, they deepen your capacity to experience joy.  Embrace discipline, revel in obedience; and thus you can prepare a deeper well for joy to fill.  However, because you have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and live in His grace, joy will overtake you whether you prepare or not.  Rest in this promise, rest in this sure fact; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  

Isaiah 35

Fear Needs to Go

It is not that you need to abide more closely so as not to feel fear, but that fear needs to go so that you can abide more closely. 

The Lord will allow you to undergo a process of discipline and drawing near to Him that will bless you and those you love. 

Freedom from fear will liberate not only you, but also your loved ones. 

Your love for God's word will bear fruit that will bless not only you, but those you love. 

The Lord is rich in mercy; able to sustain that which has been entrusted Him. So often you come to Him because of fear, fear that your sins will be punished as they deserve. Let go this fear, and do not continue in sin so that grace may abound. The Lord Himself sustains you.  

Scripture: "He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him" (1 Thessalonians 5:10). 

How to do a Really Good Job

It is not your job to cleanse yourself of sin.

Not only is it not your job, you are completely unable to do it!   

This is the heart of your frustration and despair; you have failed repeatedly to purge yourself of the things you know are wrong. Thus you feel you have failed the Lord (and so you punish yourself by avoiding His comforting presence), but you are mistaken.  It is safe to forget about yourself and to run into His arms.  No preparation is necessary. Stop holding back and come.

You cannot get at the depth of your own sin; you can’t purge it from yourself. The Lord is not is not like a human lover; you need make no elaborate preparations in order to please Him.  You best show your love for Him by coming just as you are.  Are you sorry you have sinned? Tell Him! Cleansing comes not through striving to do better, but by yielding to His hand. Repentance is a cessation of effort, a confession of helplessness to fix what is wrong through your own effort.  Redirect your efforts to seeking His face and to learning of His love for you. Obedience to God becomes possible only through relationship with God. 

You have done a good job of loving your Lord.  You want to prove yourself to Him; but it is not necessary for you to do so, because you’ve already done it once and for all time by accepting Jesus into your heart.  When you accepted Jesus Christ, you participated in His Holy sacrifice: once, for all. 

Good job!  

Scripture:  "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself..." (Hebrews 7:27b).