wow. anyone else tired? Hows that for a beginning. Well...if you are beginning a day without Jesus, that is how it really feels. How much will be enough? just a little bit more.
Oh my dear friends...we were saved by GRACE! grace. That's it. That's what is enough. That is what saves us fully. FULLY.
I am being a little redundant on purpose. You see, I have known the message and TRUTH of "saved by grace alone" for a while now. But it has just sunk in for me in a whole new way. Today.
I was reading in the word and it says in James 2:10 that, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
That does not leave much room for failure does it? Which is of course why we cannot depend upon the laws to save us for eternity. It's not like I thought my good works (that are really just filthy rags if done in self-righteousness) would save me, that wasn't it. I knew I needed Jesus to save me, but I thought that some how if I honored the Sabbath religiously, never touched a drop of alcohol or never said anything impure, then I would be more holy. No friends. I could not have been more wrong. This grace is not a license to sin, but it is a license to quit my striving in my own strength. God knows my heart. HE even knows the motives of my heart and He died to set me free from my striving. My longing to perfect in my own strength and abilities. He saved me with grace. PERIOD. The story on what "I do" essentially ends there. Now, from here on out, from this point after life by grace, this is where I begin to do all I do for the glory of the Father, for the pure desire to serve Him and bring The Father joy. To please Him, not that He isn't already pleased with me, but OFFER HIM SACRIFICES from a pure heart. This is the kind of worship that the Father desires. A broken and contrite heart. A humble person, a person who knows her position in Jesus as saved by grace, and lives like that. No more striving. STRIVING CEASED. For good. All I do now, Is live my life to be holy and blameless in such a free way to pay tribute to the one who died to set me free. My good and kind acts are done as a love song to my Savior. This morning I asked the Lord, "What kind of worship pleases the Father?" It was like I was saying, "Father, give me the equation and I'll do it because I want to please you!" But He says, "Daughter, striving has ceased, you please me already." Now go, and sin no more because you love me. *tears*
Did your heart jump to your throat when He said that? There I was, face down in the dirt, covered in my wretchedness, and He just said.."I love you the way you are, take my grace, go and sin no more."
To think, I thought I could add something to the cross.
He died for my sins. HE put my sins around His neck and He took them to hell with Him when He died for me and stayed in hell for me for three days, until He rose again. And when He rose, He left my sins in the depths, and buried them for all time. My past, present and future sins. And He said, "Now go, take my grace, and live you life for me. Worship me with your life."
Now, doesn't this make you feel more at peace? Like, "Oh, I can breath again?" STRIVING HAS CEASED! There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more, or less. He loves you just as you are, now leave your life of sin and serve Him only. Stop looking for ways to make yourself more acceptable. He has already accepted you. He already sees you as whole, that is what Jesus death was all about. Let go friend! let go...
Any good you and I do on earth from this point on, is done in worship for the Father. It's like with your life and deeds, you say, "This is the worship song I sing to you..."
Funny how when you take the pressure off, it makes you want to more of it! No one wants to do something because they must, but when they do it because they CAN, the motivation goes up, the motive itself changes. And isn't that what it's all about? The motives of our hearts? God wants us to worship Him with a sincere heart, full of love because we want to honor Him with what is on the inside, not the outside alone.
The outside is done mostly for man if were honest with ourselves, but what man does not see, the inside, that is the place we give God pleasure. You can worship God with your pure thoughts. You can worship God with your honesty. You can worship God with your true, real honest absence of lust. (idols, sex, more of what you want)
You can worship God without saying a thing. This is what I've learned. I feel so free. I feel so thankful that He took the time to teach me this. And it could not be at a more appropriate time. Truly. On the weekend that we are about to celebrate His rising from the dead, death and the grave, He brought me into a deeper understanding of what this death of grace brought to me.
His death, is my freedom. And there is nothing I can do to add to it.
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