Yes, God’s grace and mercy are relentlessly pursuing all the days of our lives Psalm 23:6, yet like any gift of any type, we can refuse to receive them.
Think about Aunt Martha, who without fail shows up on our doorstep each and every day of our lives to give us a pair of socks she has knit for us. We have choices. Really. We do. We can either...
Shut the door in her face.
Open the door and receive the gift, yet let it rest unopened on our kitchen counter.
Open the door and receive the gift, then proceed to untie the bow, open the box, find the enclosed socks and study them real hard.
Open the door and receive the gift, then proceed to untie the bow, open the box, find the enclosed socks and study them real hard and intentionally begin to apply the gift by wearing them.
We have all heard this type of illustration before, but for crying out loud, why is it so difficult for us to believe Him for this amazing gift of grace especially when we need it most when we are messing up or are messed up? We get that we can’t save ourselves from hell and receive the divine free gift of salvation, but for the greater part of our Christian lives, we erroneously tend to think the ball is now in our court to get our act together. Why might this be?
A great hindrance to walking in the riches of His grace is plain old-fashioned pride. Pride was at the root of the devil’s fall from heaven Ezek 28:5-6 and it’s at the root of a lot of our motivation, too. It goes back to the garden of Eden and the deception that we can do it! Add to our pride a spirit of shame.
I am so convinced, that pride and shame are twin sisters too. But unlike mercy and grace whose living-kindness, unfailing love, and acceptance are generously, beyond reason extended to us by our heavenly Father, pride and shame are tormenting taskmasters. Most of us have felt their whips upon our backs and their weight upon our shoulders to some degree in our lives.
We inherited shame from our mom and dad, Adam and Eve. They blew it big time and their first reaction to their mess-up was to feel ashamed and cover themselves and Paul clearly tells us that their foolishness became our foolishness, too Romans 5:12. A whole lot of darkness descending quickly.
{Please forgive the day delay! Out of town with family…enough said! Wonderfully cray-cray!}