Holy Grit — Confronting Legalism with Grace - thursday
Today’s Verse
Romans 8:3
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (NLT)
I distinctly remember a time when my faith outran my emotions. It was around 5th or 6th grade when I was already struggling to figure out how to not be a weird, insecure almost-middle-schooler. I was baptized earlier, around 3rd grade, and I was in full “on fire for Christ” mode. This involved some pretty funny moments where even slightly mischievous behavior was a hard pass for me and resulted in some vaguely spiritual guilt-tripping of friends and how we should do better.
I also shared what little I knew of Jesus with basically everyone as a solution to their problems, which IS a good practice, but I lacked most of the lead-in or contextually relevant understanding. So, did the waiter at Waffle House seemingly have a hard day? “Have you heard about Jesus?”. Was the mechanic working on my parent's car smoking and cussing up a storm? “Have you heard about Jesus?”. Accidentally, I was SUPER judgmental, but really, I just wanted to help people. I had the answer for all problems, just not the tact or conversation skills to talk about it. I was the ideal middle schooler at church, with the best answer for all questions: Jesus!
That zeal for my faith and lack of boundaries for where it applied was exciting, new, and motivating. I always wanted to do better and learn more. One day, though, it seemed like a major shift happened in my faith, like I had totally lost it. I didn’t doubt, didn’t experience something that shook my faith, nothing like that, it really felt like Jesus had left! At that young age, that was really challenging. I knew it had to be my fault and that I did something wrong. Had I not prayed correctly or for the right things? Had I not finished reading my Bible, so I was disappointing God?
If I’m honest, I still manufacture reasons why I don’t have that unabashed, childlike faith. And there probably are reasons I can and should work on. The interesting thing is that these things, like the others we’ve talked about this week, loop back around to the idea that I’m not doing what I should do to deserve grace, and therefore, I feel like I don’t have it. I have more to do for grace to be real for me. If I’m not careful, I replace acceptance of God’s gift of grace with guilt around my inability to earn it myself. Maybe you’re a bit like me.
REFLECTION
How are you doing with accepting God’s grace as available to you? Pray today that He reveals where you may not totally accept His grace in your life and that He helps you walk into freedom in that space.
