“[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:14 (GNT) Your failures don’t surprise God. He expects them. He knows what we’re made of—because he created us! The Bible says, “[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 GNT). God won’t stop loving us when we mess up. The central message of the Bible is this: God doesn’t love you because of who you are or what you’ve done but because of who he is and what he has done. God made you. He loves you. It’s settled! You can’t make God love you more. You can’t make him love you less. He loves you just as much on your bad days as he does on your good days. His love is not performance based. This is grace—and it’s absolutely amazing. God looks down on you and says, “I choose to love you. And you can’t make me stop loving you.” Even when we’re ridiculously bad, God won’t stop loving us. It truly is amazing grace. When you understand God’s grace, you can relax about your failures and have the confidence to take more risks. You may have come to God multiple times for forgiveness on the same issue. Maybe you’re not sure you deserve his love and grace. And you’re sure that God has grown tired of your constant efforts at change. But you can relax. God never tires of a conversation with you. He’s never too busy. No matter how many times you come to him for forgiveness, he’ll be waiting with open arms. You may have grown up in a home where conditional love was the norm. Your parents’ affections may have been based on your academic, athletic, or social successes. When you failed in one of those areas, you felt the loss of your family’s love. That’s not how God deals with you. The Bible says, “[God] canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 NCV). The Christian life isn’t a mistake-free life, but it can be a guilt-free life. God understands your failures, and he loves you anyway.
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“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.”
Ephesians 4:2 (NLT) No relationship will survive without grace. You’ve got to cut people some slack! You’ve got to let things go. The Bible says, “Love patiently accepts all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NCV). In the original Greek, this literally means “covered with a roof.” Would you buy a house without a roof? Of course not. You’d have no protection from wind and rain. A roof covers and protects your home. In the same way, biblical love covers a relationship and lets some things slide. It doesn’t hold people accountable for every little mistake they make. You need a roof on your relationship, because people damage pretty easily, and we need the kind of love that extends grace. Why is grace essential to relationships? Because we are all sinners. If you’re married, you married a sinner—and your spouse did too! Two imperfect spouses will never make a perfect marriage. And it’s the same way in friendships. No friendship is perfect—because no friend is perfect! Two imperfect people will never create a perfect relationship. The Bible says in Romans 3:10, “There is no one who always does what is right, not even one” (NCV). Nobody gets it right 100 percent of the time. It’s never just one person’s fault. We all make mistakes, and there’s always responsibility on both sides. The saying goes, “It takes two to tango.” It also takes two to disagree! That’s why the Bible says we have to learn to extend grace to each other. Forgiveness is a two-way street. We cannot receive what we’re unwilling to give to other people. You build strong relationships by treating other people the way God treats you. Romans 15:7 says, “Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you” (NLT). Accepting others may look like listening without judging to a friend or giving space to a tired, grumpy family member. When you accept others as they are, looking past their faults for the sake of love, that’s extending grace. “Many people received God’s gift of life by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:15 (NCV) If you looked in your mail today and found a free gift waiting for you, it wouldn’t really be free. Someone paid for it at some point. The same is true of God’s grace. It’s totally and completely free to you—but Jesus paid for it. It cost Jesus his life. That’s why salvation comes through Christ and Christ alone—because he’s the one who paid for the grace we receive. The Bible says, “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved” (Acts 15:11 NIV). Nobody else but Jesus volunteered to pay for your sins. And nobody else but Jesus paid the price for all the blessings God brings your way. Romans 5:15 says, “Many people received God’s gift of life by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ” (NCV). When you receive the grace of God through Christ alone, you are “in Christ.” That phrase is used more than 120 times in the Bible. And being in Christ changes how God looks at you. You may think that when God looks at you, he sees all your sins, failures, and rough spots. But when you’re “in Christ,” God just sees Jesus. You may see all of your scars, messes, and problems—but God sees perfection in Christ. That’s grace, and it can only be found in Christ. God’s love for you isn’t based on what you do. It’s based on who you are in Christ. In fact, there’s nothing you could ever do to make God love you any more—or any less. When you come to God through Jesus Christ, he won’t reject you. The Bible promises, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13 NIV). God is ready and willing to give you his grace and secure a future for you in heaven. You just need to accept his grace! “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 (NIV) You can’t earn God’s grace. You can’t work for it. You don’t deserve it. The Bible teaches, “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 NIV). You can only receive grace by faith. The Bible is full of stories illustrating God’s grace. Maybe the most familiar one is about the prodigal son in Luke 15. As you might remember, the father in this story has two sons. One day the younger son said, “Dad, I’m leaving. I want my half of the family inheritance right now so I can get out of here.” So his father gave him half of the family inheritance, and the son moved to a foreign country. He then wasted his life on wild living. And, after a while, he realized he had wastefully spent everything he had. Forced to get a job, he ended up in a pig trough feeding pigs, and he was so hungry, he thought about eating the pigs’ food. Flat on his back, he thought, “What am I doing here? I know I blew it. It’s all my fault, but the people who work for my dad as servants live better than this.” So he decided to head home and tell his father, “I know I messed up. I admit it. I wasted all of my inheritance. I don’t deserve to be called your son. But just hire me as a servant, and I’ll work for you the rest of my life, because even your servants live better than I’ve been living.” Yet the Bible says the father was both loving and gracious toward his son. When he saw the son in the distance coming home, he ran to meet him with a giant hug. Then the father threw a party for his wayward son. When you accept God’s grace, that’s how God responds to you. Your past is forgiven, you have a purpose for living, and you have an eternal home in heaven. That’s good news. And that’s a reason to celebrate! “The promise is not only for those people that live under the law of Moses. It is for anyone who lives with faith like Abraham.”
Romans 4:16 (ICB) No matter who you are and no matter what you’ve done, God loves you and wants you to come home to him. He wants to shower his grace on you. He wants to throw a party for you when you return. The Bible says in Romans 4:16, “The promise is not only for those people that live under the law of Moses. It is for anyone who lives with faith like Abraham” (ICB). The apostle Paul is saying that, in the Old Testament, the Jewish people (the nation of Israel) lived under the Law of Moses. But Abraham, who became known as the father of faith, came into God’s grace by faith—continuing to hope against all hopelessness—and that same grace is available to anyone today when they place their faith in Jesus Christ. That was amazing news then, and it is amazing news now! All of us can come to God through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. Does “everybody” include short and tall people? Yes. Does it mean rich people and poor people? Yes. Does it include politicians and blue-collar workers? Yes. Does it include people from every ethnic background? Yes. Does it mean people from every country in the world? Yes. Does it mean people who go to church every Sunday? Yes. Does it mean people who have never even seen a Bible? Yes. God’s grace is available to you no matter what—despite your secret sins, your faults, and your weaknesses. When you accept Jesus into your life, God’s grace is at work when you’re walking closely with him, but also when you feel far from him. When the Bible says that God’s grace is available to all, it gives no preconditions. The heart of Christianity—the heart of God’s grace—is this: When God sent his Son to die on a cross, he did it for everyone. Think about this truth: As you go about your day today, you’ll never set eyes on someone who Jesus didn’t die for. And that includes the person you see in the mirror every day! “[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:14 (GNT) Your failures don’t surprise God. In fact, he expects them! The Bible says, “[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 GNT). He knows what you’re made of because he created you. God won’t stop loving you when you mess up. He doesn’t love you because of who you are or what you’ve done but because of who he is and what he has done. God made you. He loves you. It’s settled. You can’t make God love you more. You can’t make God love you less. He loves you just as much on your bad days as he does on your good days. His love is not performance-based. The Bible has a word for this kind of love: grace. And it’s absolutely amazing! Even when you do ridiculously bad things, God won’t stop loving you. It truly is amazing grace. When you accept his grace, you can relax about your failures and have the confidence to take more risks in life. You may have gone to God multiple times for forgiveness on the same issue. Maybe you’re not sure you deserve his love and grace. (You can settle that now: You don’t.) And you’re convinced that God has grown tired of your constant efforts at change. (He hasn’t.) God never tires of a conversation with you. He’s never too busy. No matter how many times you go to him for forgiveness, he’ll always be waiting with open arms. You may have grown up in a home where conditional love was the norm. Your parents’ affections may have been based on your academic, athletic, or social successes. When you failed in one of those areas, you felt the loss of your family’s love. You can relax. That is not how God deals with you. The Bible says God “canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 NCV). The Christian life isn’t a mistake-free life, but it can be a guilt-free life. God understands your failures—and he loves you anyway. That’s God’s amazing grace! It is his goodness to you, and you can rest in it today. “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”
Colossians 3:13 (NLT) Showing grace to others is what God wants us to do, but it’s not always easy because we’re so often focused on ourselves. It’s easier sometimes to be selfish instead of gracious. Maybe you see the slow clerk at the grocery store as an interruption to your day rather than somebody who might be struggling to keep his job—or who just got the worst news of his life. You may see a family member who’s struggling right now as a drain on you rather than someone who feels hopeless over a desperate situation. Or you see the person who cut you off on the freeway as your worst enemy rather than someone in need of God’s love. We all need God’s love. That’s why Jesus Christ came into this world. He came to show people grace. The ultimate way God does this is through forgiveness. And the ultimate way he asks you to show grace to other people is by forgiving them. Colossians 3:13 says, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” (NLT). People often ask, “How can I find the strength to forgive? I don’t have it in me.” None of us do! The only place you might find the strength to forgive is in remembering how much Jesus has forgiven us. When remembering that, then he gives us the strength and grace to forgive others. Clara Barton, who founded the Red Cross, was reminded by a friend of an especially cruel thing that someone had done to her years before. Barton seemed not to recall it, and the friend asked, “Don’t you remember?” Her famous reply was, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting it.” What do you need to forget? If you don’t forgive, you’re not going to enjoy God’s vision for the rest of your life, because unforgiveness will keep you stuck in the past. When it seems impossible—when you feel like you can’t be gracious toward someone—remember this: Jesus forgave you. Remembering the grace God has shown you will give you the strength to be gracious to and forgive others. “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
Hebrews 12:15 (NIV) If you’re still holding on to resentment, then someone is controlling you. Have you ever said, “You make me so mad”? That’s an admission that the other person is controlling you. The only way to get this person out of your mind and heart is to heal the hurt with God’s grace. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (NIV). Have you ever known a family where a bitter parent poisoned the whole family? Bitterness is contagious, and it can actually become generational. Someone needs to break the chain—and if bitterness has taken root in your family, that someone can be you. Are your parents bitter because their parents were bitter because their parents were bitter? It’s time to break the chain. And there’s only one way to break it: with grace. Friends, if you don’t get God’s grace in your life, life will make you bitter. Why? Because there is sin in the world. We live on a broken planet. This is not heaven. Evil people get away with evil things all the time. Life is not fair. Is forgiveness fair? Absolutely not. But forgiveness is not about fairness. It’s not about getting even. It’s about grace. You don’t forgive a person because it’s the fair thing to do. You forgive a person because it’s the right thing to do, and you don’t want your own heart full of poison. You don’t want to hold on to the hurt and the hate. Forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his life. It cost God his Son. As Jesus was dying on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NIV). It’s like he was saying, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” In effect, he said, “They don’t deserve it. They don’t even know what they’re doing. But, Father, forgive them anyway.” Follow Jesus’ example and offer forgiveness today. Heal your bitterness with his grace. “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 (GNT) Let’s face it. You and I do foolish things from time to time. We make mistakes. But nothing you ever do is beyond the capacity for God to use. You may make mistakes, but God doesn’t. The Bible says this in Romans 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose” (GNT). When you make a mistake, God says, “I can fit that in too. I can use it all for good.” Let's be clear, though. This isn’t a promise for everyone. The Bible doesn’t say God works everything for good for those living in rebellion against him or for those who aren’t living for God’s purposes. This promise is for people who come to God and say, “I want to live for your purpose. Even though I make mistakes, I want to do the right thing. I want to follow and trust you.” Do that, and God will take it all and use it for his good. That’s a reason for joy. When you put your life in God’s hands, it doesn’t mean you’ll never goof up again. You’ll still make bad decisions. You’ll still mess up. But God can fit it all into his plans. There is no plan B for your life. Before you were born, God knew all the mistakes you’d make. He also knew how he’d fit those mistakes into his plan. That means you can relax. You can stop being anxious. Do the best with what God has given you. You can live in confidence and joy, knowing God will work everything in your life into his plan. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 (NIV) Few people are willing to suffer for someone else. But Jesus was. In fact, he didn’t suffer for just one person; he chose to suffer for all the people in the world! John 19 describes some of Jesus’ suffering: “After this, Jesus knew that everything had been done. So that the Scripture would come true, he said, ‘I am thirsty.’ There was a jar full of vinegar there, so the soldiers soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a branch of a hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ mouth” (John 19:28-29 NCV). Jesus was in agony on the cross—and he was thirsty. He was suffering not just from pain but also from great thirst. Jesus didn’t deserve to suffer for everyone’s sin. We each deserve to suffer for our own sins. But Jesus was willing to suffer and thirst for you so that you can go to heaven. Jesus did nothing wrong. He committed no crimes. He didn’t hurt anyone. He lived a perfect life. So why did they kill him? Jesus died for the redemption of others. He was thirsty for your benefit. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV). Jesus’ love for you is so great, so deep, and so wide that he was willing to take your sin as his own and cover it with his righteousness. Your sin cost him his life. He considers you worth it! It’s hard to wrap our minds around that kind of love, but maybe this story will help: In 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 took off from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Twenty seconds later it crashed and killed 156 people. Only one person survived—a 4-year-old girl named Cecelia from Tempe, Arizona. How did she make it when everyone else died? Rescuers pieced together what likely happened. Evidently, when the passengers realized they were going to crash, Cecelia’s mother took off her seatbelt, turned around, and got in front of her child. She surrounded her with her body, covering her in her love, protecting her little girl. The mother gave her life for another. That’s what Jesus did for you! He suffered so that you don’t have to. He went through hell on the cross so you don’t have to go through hell for eternity. He covered you and protected you from the punishment, flames, and pain. Jesus willingly died so you could have eternal life. He chose to suffer to buy your redemption. You never have to wonder how much God loves you. He’s already shown you on the cross! |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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