Do you ever feel like what you do in life just doesn't cut it? It doesn't make the mark? You are always messing up, making mistakes, or letting people down? Perhaps you didn't produce the quality work that your boss was looking for at your job, or you took a project in a different direction than your boss had in mind and he asked you to do it over. Or what about your home life? Are you always trying to meet the approval of your significant other? Trying to check off some list to do things right and meet their expectations? Maybe your spouse asked you to fix up the yard, or cook a meal, or do an errand. You do it, and it doesn't meet their expectations. They get angry and it turns into a fight. Or let's say your parents require you to get a job for the summer and you get a waitressing job and they don't approve of it. Or they expect you to go to college, but you have other plans, so they express their disappointment. You feel nothing you can do can satisfy them or make them happy. You feel unloved. You feel tired of trying to meet their expectations. People and life place these demands on us daily. We live in a society that is so focused on our accomplishments, what we do, our successes....our works.
But how great is it to hear the Truth....
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
Our Heavenly Father does not judge or extend His love based off our works. Our faith and salvation comes through grace - an undeserved gift from God. No matter what we do, whether we have great successes in life or great failures, none of that matters in God's eyes. He does not offer His love to us and give us a vote of approval after we check off a list of things we have to do. No matter where we are in life, no matter what we have accomplished thus far, God offers us His grace. Completely unmerited. His grace is offered to all with no conditions and no questions asked. He gives us the free will to accept it or not. It's beautiful really. I am so undeserving of this grace. Sometimes I get so caught up in my mistakes and failures in life and so overwhelmed by the checklists and expectations I am failing to meet, that I just sit back, and breathe a sigh of relief that my God is so good that His love is unconditional. He grace is sufficient for me.
Some of my favorite lyrics from a classic favorite worship song of mine are:
"Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done, but because of who You are."
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