Originally published on 5/19/2009
Have you thought that you were not doing enough, or not good enough for God. Well, that’s a trap where we can find ourselves. We can never do enough to be good enough for God. Once we accept his gift and put on Christ, we will be continually transformed to be more like him. We will strive for good works. We will attempt to eliminate sin from our lives. We will hold up the banner of righteousness. However, we will never be good enough – without the death of Christ.
With Christ in you, and his grace and mercy washing you, you don’t have to try to be good enough. You are! Christ has made you that may. And boy, when you can free yourselves from the bondage of works to achieve salvation – you are free. So works – YES- works to honor, works to serve, works to glorify God. But not works to repay, or works to earn. And these works don’t have to be great spiritual events. They can simple. The way you interact with someone in the hallway. The way you reach out to a child that is hurting. The way you listen to you friends struggles. You don’t have to be a ‘spiritual giant’ to be a recipient of his forgiveness.
Let the grace of God wash over you today. Accept his gift. Live free, and serve the master.
The Message (MSG)
Romans 12
Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.