Thursday, September 18, 2008

God Loves Good Little Girls

Have you ever overheard a statement like that? Perhaps spoken from an adult to a child, emphasizing the incredibly wrong statement that we often believe? In fact, it's completely contrary to the message that the entire Bible preaches. The truth is, we have no good apart from Christ and there's no working our way up to be 'good enough' for Him. He wanted us as the full-out sinners that we are. Nothing we do can gain goodness or righteousness.

It is by GRACE we have been saved.

No pursuit of spiritual disciplines or quantity of official "quiet times" will help us acquire acceptance. Sure, they help us grow in other ways, but those aren't the keys to God's approval of us.

Once we grasp that truth, it brings us to our knees because we see what we really are...infidels; entirely insufficient, inadequate, defective, imperfect, incapable, and having sheer hopelessness. We realize our inability to add a single inch to our spiritual stature. And I think that pit we find ourselves in is refreshing to God. I bet it's nauseating to Him when He sees us trying to measure up and impress Him. What a denial of the gospel of grace.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

carey. your words are so true. it is good to hear the truth. what an insult it must be to God to say that His grace is not enough and to think we must also earn and work our way into his eternal kingdom. there is only one way...thanks for some truth today.

Sara @ Life With the Two said...

Such truth. And like most truth, not something everyone wants to hear.