No
amount of striving will produce any amount of righteousness in us at all (Titus
3:5; Ephesians 2:9). All of our self-produced holiness amounts to nothing more
than a pile of old, dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6).
We
cannot boast of what we accomplished in Jesus' name to earn our way to heaven;
it is only by grace through faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). If we trust in our
self-efforts, we are foolish (Galatians 3:1-3).
Neither
can we use any wisdom, strength or riches of our own to gain God's favor; this
accomplishes nothing more than building our house on the sand (Matthew 7:26).
Wanting
to please God, we attempt to religiously adhere to even the most vague letter
of the law (Matthew 5:18). Our heart is in the right place, because we do not
want to disappoint God.
However,
no works on our part will gain us access to Heaven or make God love us more
than He already does. No failure on our part will make God love us any less
either, although it does break our fellowship with Him until we repent.
Only
an intimate walk with the Lord through honest repentance of sin and a commitment
of our life to His service will earn us His protection, kindness, justice and
righteousness on our behalf (Proverbs 28:26; Jeremiah 9:23-24).
God's
Spirit enables us to shun evil and honor God with all of our thoughts and
actions (Philippians 2:12-13). We draw near to God, resist the devil and watch him flee from us
(James 4:7).
We
eventually learn to give God every fear and insecurity that plagues our life,
because we come to understand that He really does care about us (1 Peter 5:7).
Prayer:
Father
God, human beings feel safe somehow in trusting only in what we can discern
with our senses and understand with our mind. We are driven to control our own
life and even live in rebellion and pride in order to prove with can keep our
self safe. When we add the devil's deception to our humanism and the lusts of
the world and the temptation of our flesh to this equation, it is a wonder that
anyone will throw our self into Your loving arms.
Yet,
once we do, we realize how much time we wasted by not surrendering to your
peace and joy years ago. Our sin nature doomed us to failure since birth; but
Jesus Christ set us free from sin and death by His crucifixion, resurrection
and ascension (Romans 8:2). Thank You for becoming Emmanuel for us and setting
us free to enjoy eternity both now and for endless ages to come.
Thought
for the Day:
God
delights in us and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 9:7;
100:3); as we seek His will for every minute of every day, we walk in His ways,
and He removes the ruts and bumps in our road (Proverbs 3:5-8).
