Day 2074 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Ephesians 2:9 NIV

Yesterday's post was about how we cannot possibly earn God's love or forgiveness. Let's be honest here, we're all WAY too screwed up to ever come close! Thankfully, it's not about what we deserve. It's not about what we can offer. And it's not even about what we can do. It's all about the mercy and grace that God has for us broken and twisted little heathens.

This verse right here helps us see that no amount of trying to be perfect will ever matter. Don't get me wrong, trying to do better does matter. Trying to be better people does matter. Working every single day to make better choices and grow closer to Him does and always will matter. Please don't think I'm saying that we shouldn't bother trying to work on ourselves and improve our walk.

I'm just saying that when we inevitably aren't close to perfect, it's still okay. Even when we fall seriously short of doing what's right, His mercy is unchanged. Even when we fall, fail, pick the wrong choice, make the wrong decision, say the wrong thing, He still loves us. Making perfection our goal only sets us up for impending disappointment when we don't get there.

The goal will always be a relationship with Christ built upon faith. We like to think that we can make things happen. That's a very human and very common mindset. But we can't possibly work our way into Heaven. We can't earn salvation. We can't buy His love. All we can do is put ourselves and our pride to the side and humbly accept His undeserved kindness.

The key is our pride. Thinking we can earn His mercy by doing and saying everything just right keeps far too much focus on ourselves. I guess we want to be able to say, "Hey, look at me! Look how good I'm doing. Look how many things I've gotten right!" But it's not about us. It never will be. It is about Him and His selfless gifts to us. Trying to earn something only keeps us thinking we're in control. But we'll get so much further in our faith when we choose humility over pride.

We don't need to brag. We don't have much to brag about. We need to focus instead on praise. Since we can never earn what He's given us, maybe we should spend our time thanking Him for giving it to us anyway!

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