Grace

Jesus died so that you don’t have to suffer the consequences of your sins.  How irksome for someone who exercises religiously and eats “right” to see you thriving because your life source is firmly planted in your Lord.  As Paul shook the snake off into the fire, as the Israelite boys thrived on vegetables (and no, it wasn’t because those particular vegetables were better for them than the King's food), you can thrive even if you ingest dough conditioners in your bread or artificial food coloring in your M & M's.  This happens because of grace, God's grace, and not by human effort.  When you are weak, you are strong, and thus the vitality of Christians confounds the world’s wisdom.  Christ's life is displayed in your flawed and fallen body so that you participate in His perfection, even here, even now. 

As you love your own children, God loves you.  They certainly do not deserve it by their behaviors, but you are delighted by them because they are yours and because they are beautiful.  You are His, and you are beautiful.  He is delighted by you because you are His own.

Do You Feel You've Missed the Boat??

 What "boat" have you missed?  Is it the vessel labeled “becoming strong  and successful by my own efforts?” Or perhaps the one inscribed, “In my own power, I arose from adversity and became more wonderful than I was before.”  Yes, you have missed those rides because the Lord has placed them out of your reach. 

Here is the boat you are in:  “Sinner Saved by Grace and Heaven Bound.”  You are in good company with your fellow passengers; all who have accepted the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus are "in the same boat."  

Praise God for His faithfulness!  Praise Him for providing you a way to eternal life!  By the the purification of the Blood of Christ through the Love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, you have been saved.  Your role is one of acceptance of a gift given you.  You do not have to earn your own way, it has been purchased for you.  Gratitude (as opposed to the restlessness that stems from your need to achieve)  is the appropriate response to this gift of incomparable value. 

Guilt

Guilt can be as stern a motivator as any outward force; in many ways guilt is a more potent taskmaster than the confines of a job or even the assignments given you by others.  Obedience is very nearly the opposite of guilt-induced action.  Obedience involves submission while guilt is like an attempt to smother a fire that refuses to die completely.   

Other human beings may set a small fire of guilt either by manipulation or just through a sharing of difficult circumstances, and you then have a choice: either allow the flames to spread or smother them instantly by turning to the Lord for instruction.  You get into trouble when you take some action in an attempt to quench guilt in your own power. 

Abide in Grace

You are not to continue in sin so that grace may abound, but you must abide in grace before this is even a danger.  Prior to entering into grace, human beings attempt to attain freedom by their own efforts rather than through participation in the freedom purchased by Christ’s Blood.  Apart from the freedom of grace, complacency is not an issue;  the sin that needs repentance is trusting to your own strength rather than that of the Almighty God. 

Faith: A Firm Scaffolding for Reality

Fears are like mist rising from a field; they are insubstantial and scarcely real, like a mirage.  But fear has power to cripple your faith, contain your joy, and to turn you into a furtive, sleep-deprived shadow of a Christian. You mistake faith for fear and fear for faith.  Faith is the firm scaffolding upon which your reality can be built, but no reality can be built upon fear. 

You do not cause bad things to happen because you are afraid they might, nor do you prevent bad things from happening because you superstitiously refuse to allow certain thoughts and words to be spoken.  

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"Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge...He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him, with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”"  (Psalm 91:3-4, 15-16).  

"You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat...You silence the uproar of foreigners as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled" (Isaiah 25:5). 

"I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them (Psalm 34:4-7). 

Note:  This was written in 1997 when I was suffused with fear as my young daughter boarded a plane with a few other teenagers and a sponsor for a school trip to California.  

Fear Leads to Sin

Fear will cause you to sin. You must operate from a faith perspective or you will continue to struggle with this cycle of sin and self-condemnation. 

Fear does not keep you safe. 

Freedom from fear doesn't come through striving, but is a gift appropriated by faith.  The gift is already given.

Your memories can't be trusted.  Apart from faith you remember the events, but not the sweetness of the Lord's sustenance.  You must know Him in your present in order to believe Him in your past. 

Regarding Laziness

Laziness is a sin of hopelessness.  Find your hope in the Lord, and your paralysis will depart. 

 The Lord is with you.  

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“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us...."  

"....The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have..."

(Judges 6:13-14)