«God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God» (Ephesians 2:8, NLT).
We are so afraid of grace! We often prefer to be bogged down by our feeling of guilt because we think that if we accept God’s grace we will give sin free rein. Then, we lash out at ourselves with the whip of guilt, thinking it will turn us into better Christians. Sadly, it only leads us away from God, because it’s an attempt to save ourselves by our own merits.
Grace and the feeling of guilt lead us in opposite directions:
When God moves us to true repentance, He gives us a little nudge that draws us closer to Him; He reveals the dimension of our sin, but also the solution: His grace.
On the other hand, the feeling of guilt draws us away from God because it leads us to punish ourselves and to try to solve the situation our way. In a nutshell, guilt makes us hide from God, while grace makes us run to His arms.
In her book Extravagant Grace, Barbara Duguid reflects that we can hate our sin and at the same time be compassionate with our own weakness. Sometimes we act as if there were only two options, where we can either hate our sin and punish ourselves for it, or give ourselves a break, which leads us to carelessness and more sinning. But there is another option. Like the Apostle Paul, we can hate our sin and plan on not committing it, and nonetheless understand and accept our weakness, surrendering ourselves to God’s mercy. That’s the extravagantly good news! Ironically, instead of feeling happy, we often feel uncomfortable with the idea of receiving God’s grace, because we don’t want to surrender to His mercy.
The truth is you can’t save yourself, no matter how much you whip yourself with guilt. Stop resisting God’s grace. «We can do nothing, absolutely nothing, to commend writes Ellen G. White, in Faith and Works; «but when as erring, come to Christ, we may find rest in His love.»—ch. 3, p. 38. Open up your heart to His grace today!
Dear Lord, thank You for the extravagant and undeserved gift of Your grace. Today I want to stop resisting and open my hands, my heart, and my life in order to freely receive it.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Perez & Angelica Cuate
