GREAT GRACE
Psalms 19:13,14 Keep your servant from willful sins; may they not rule over me Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
It is certainly not easy to live a sinless life. I have tried it and many people have. Just about the time we think we are doing pretty good, the Holy Spirit quickens our heart to the pride that we have let form in our heart because of all our effort. In many ways I have always been and frustrated perfectionist and a people pleaser. I never could be perfect and I could never please everyone, certainly for very long. My life was like trying to climb a ladder and just before I got the the last rung, there would be more rungs added. Sin and failure seemed to plague me. It was easy to become depressed and just want to give up, but a person somehow just wakes up and tries again another day.
When I became a Christian something happened. Now I disappointed myself for failing to be the Christian I wanted to be for Jesus. I found that the joy of my salvation would quickly fade away when I would sin or not live up to the standards I thought being a Christian should be. It really wasn’t until I had a grasp on the doctrine of grace that I began to see my life in a new and wonderful perspective concerning my relationship with Jesus. Letting myself and others down really didn’t change, but because of the grace God showed me joy, happiness and peace filled my heart once again. Just has it had been there at my salvation.
It is a strange thing but certainly not an uncommon thing to leave all our sins, frustrations and shortcomings at the altar with Jesus, but to only find ourselves taking them back once we went home. What we knew we couldn’t do when we went to the altar to pray to Jesus to take care of, we still couldn’t do when we left. It was all a matter of Jesus and grace. It was never about us, but about Jesus. Our righteousness and perfection is Christ’s imparted to us. While we still see ourselves and rightly so as imperfect and sinful, because of Jesus’ grace, God see’s us entirely different. God see’s us in light of Jesus. In away it is much like the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. Inside the ark of the covenant is the law that we continually break, the manna that we are continually ungrateful for and the rod that we continually reject to follow. When God looks to all our failures, he must first look at the mercy seat that has the blood of his Son our Lord Jesus’ Christ on it. Even though we continually fall so short of our obligations to God, God can not take his eyes off the blood. So you see when God looks at us he really sees Jesus and his great sacrifice.
Brothers and sisters, don’t let your weakness, failures and your humanity pull you down and get focused on yourself. Remember God sees Jesus in us and so must we!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your great sacrifice for us. You are a wonderful God and Savior to offer us such great grace and mercy. We love you Jesus!
