Monday Morning Meditation - I Cannot Earn His Love
I can press on to attain the home prepared for me in heaven, and this home - eternal home - is more luxurious than anything on earth. It's splendour comes from the Light of His Presence. This home is my hope.
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." (Titus 2:11-14)
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." (Titus 2:11-14)
The certainty of being face to Face with my Saviour brings me joy, and it gives me the courage I need. So why do I stress when I've failed, for my failures cannot alter my redemption. Nor can my achievements earn me a better salvation. What possibly can flesh do to me or for me?
"When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalms 56:9-11)
I worry. What if my whole life is wasted? What if I never accomplish a thing? What will I do if I've failed in this world? Earth-existence frets. Works-based worries. Fleshly failure fears. None of this truly matters in the long run; it doesn't make God love me less.
There are many successful people in this world. Does God love them more than He loves me? Certainly not! "For God does not show favouritism." (Romans 2:11)
I cannot tie up my mind with falsities that I can earn extra love or salvation. It is plainly ludicrous and pointless for me to tire myself out in an attempt to become more loved. God's love has already been perfected and we can't by any means earn that love.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Romans 2:8-9)
This grace-river flowing over me of love, peace, and forgiveness isn't anything I deserve. I could never be good enough to be called righteous before God. But, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, for He has done all the work for us. We cannot gloat about good works, except we can proclaiming His perfect and paid-in-full atonement for our lack. What we could never accomplish, Jesus accomplished for us, and He did it all out of love.
"Now, because of this, those who belong to Christ will not suffer the punishment of sin. The power of the Holy Spirit has made me free from the power of sin and death. This power is mine because I belong to Christ Jesus. The Law could not make me free from the power of sin and death. It was weak because it had to work with weak human beings. But God sent His own Son. He came to earth in a body of flesh which could be tempted to sin as we in our bodies can be. He gave Himself to take away sin. By doing that, He took away the power sin had over us. In that way, Jesus did for us what the Law said had to be done." (Romans 8:1-4)
"When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalms 56:9-11)
I worry. What if my whole life is wasted? What if I never accomplish a thing? What will I do if I've failed in this world? Earth-existence frets. Works-based worries. Fleshly failure fears. None of this truly matters in the long run; it doesn't make God love me less.
There are many successful people in this world. Does God love them more than He loves me? Certainly not! "For God does not show favouritism." (Romans 2:11)
I cannot tie up my mind with falsities that I can earn extra love or salvation. It is plainly ludicrous and pointless for me to tire myself out in an attempt to become more loved. God's love has already been perfected and we can't by any means earn that love.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Romans 2:8-9)
This grace-river flowing over me of love, peace, and forgiveness isn't anything I deserve. I could never be good enough to be called righteous before God. But, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, for He has done all the work for us. We cannot gloat about good works, except we can proclaiming His perfect and paid-in-full atonement for our lack. What we could never accomplish, Jesus accomplished for us, and He did it all out of love.
"Now, because of this, those who belong to Christ will not suffer the punishment of sin. The power of the Holy Spirit has made me free from the power of sin and death. This power is mine because I belong to Christ Jesus. The Law could not make me free from the power of sin and death. It was weak because it had to work with weak human beings. But God sent His own Son. He came to earth in a body of flesh which could be tempted to sin as we in our bodies can be. He gave Himself to take away sin. By doing that, He took away the power sin had over us. In that way, Jesus did for us what the Law said had to be done." (Romans 8:1-4)
I could never be righteous on my own, none of us could. That's what God had in mind from the beginning, and that's why He sent us a Saviour! If we cannot earn salvation, what has formulated this twisted mindset that tells us to go, go, go and work as hard as we possibly can to be a good person? "Good people" can't earn their way to heaven. Let's all just resolve to stop the aimless efforts to be "good enough" and simply embrace His grace!
Here are some verses:
"There is no fear in love. Perfect love puts fear out of our hearts. People have fear when they are afraid of being punished. The man who is afraid does not have perfect love." (John 4:18)
"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)
"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
I hope you enjoyed a little taste of all the thoughts and verses that catapult about inside my head all day. May your Monday morning meditation be filled with divine inspiration too! God bless each and every one of you!
-The Introverted Evangelist
Comments
Post a Comment