Monday, July 12, 2010

A Note to Write

I stumbled into the kitchen this morning and a beautiful reality met me. Oh yeah! I had cleaned the kitchen last night! My day is full of possibilities now!

This is my only day off this week.

Hello, laundry.

Ironing is the ONLY chore I will pay cash money for. It's also the chore that has no takers.

Did I mention cash money?

Glenna is earning money for Night of Joy, and even SHE doesn't want to iron.


Yesterday's church worship service was especially sweet because I had missed last week. Pastor Ron spoke on Romans 3:21-24, which he described as the most important paragraph in Christianity, and after the final amen I felt like I had been running a marathon but FINALLY burst through the ribbon at the finish line.

Glorious!

I noticed that Kelly was taking notes as furiously as I was . . . each word was golden. Each phrase was exactly what we needed to hear.

Romans 3:23:

"For all have sinned . . ." past tense.

". . . and fall short. . ." present tense.

" . . . of the glory of God."

YES, I will stumble and fall again and again. I will fall short of being everything I want to be, which is everything HIM. I can't avoid this. I can't really help it. Sin is still present on this earth and I have to struggle with it daily, though some days are far easier than others. This is where I am running the marathon! Striving continually, I become exhausted and long for rest. I am exhausted because I am counting on myself and forgetting the most important thing a Christian could ever know, the very heart of the book of Romans.

Romans 3:24:

"They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Grace

Freely

Poured

Out.

I fail. He declares me not guilty. Not because of anything I have done to put check marks in the "good" column of my life, but only because of His grace.

I can't.

He did.

Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus alone.

I could never be good enough.

He was more than good enough on my behalf.

I can't explain what that means to me, to know that the marathon I was running has already been run and I've been declared victorious. I am running and running, trying to be exactly what I think I'm supposed to be, and God is telling me, "YOU ARE. Don't you see? I paid for your perfection. You have been made perfect."

Perfect like Him.

This is not how I feel. No, this is NEVER how I feel, but this is what is true. This is how God now sees me because I have trusted that the death of His Son on the cross is enough.

It is enough.

Anything I do from here on until death is not because I have to earn my own righteousness. It's because I'm writing a thank you letter to my Savior.

And my Mom taught me to always remember to write a thank you note.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMEN!

BA

DaDaHaZaReJe said...

Sweet water to my thirsty soul!

Joanna K. Harris said...

I LOVE this post!
I love GRACE!
And I love that your mom taught you to write thank-you notes. (a lost art these days)
And I love YOU!
Thanks for sharing. =)
Hugs,
-Joanna

Unknown said...

Along the same lines, I read this today:
"Because we are united to Jesus the Messiah through faith, we are accepted by God each day as whole and complete. We are received as those who are filled with all his graces, even though our lives may be shot through with inconsistencies." (Richard Lovelace)

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