ADD UP

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

Ever have the kind of day that you well… just aren’t proud of?

Maybe you missed the mark. Didn’t fire on all cylinders? That flesh side of you overran any spiritual influence? 

And it was SUNDAY to boot.

Friends, SUNDAY’S aren’t immune.

 

Maybe anger won. 

Maybe selfishness won.

Maybe dishonesty or a lack of integrity ruled the day. 

Was it a day dotted with impurity or self-centered thoughts? 

There was more “bad” on the ledger than good?

 

Summed up it was a day when your “performance” was well… lacking. 

A day when no one would have mistaken you for a Christian?

That kind of day?

 

I have had days like that; days when I just don’t “perform” up to the standard of “Christian”; days where I just didn’t “measure” up.

Good thing I don’t have to. 

Yet many of us have been ingrained to think our performance is what GOD measures.

Hardly. 

If that were the case, we all would be in a heap of trouble for sure; none of us would “add up” to much.  

At least I know I wouldn’t.

It's not about my performance. It's about Jesus' performance for me. Grace isn't there for some future me but for the real me. The me who struggled. The me who was messy. ..... He loves me in my mess; he was not waiting until I cleaned myself up.” ― Jefferson Bethke

 

But sadly, a lot of folks preach this whole “Christian thing” as a litany and list of “dos and don'ts”; reducing faith, the Cross, and grace to nothing more than a math equation.

 

Jesus' saving grace + doing good things - doing bad things = righteousness.

That is a failed formula!

It doesn’t and never will “add up”.

 

And while this formula for righteousness runs counter to scripture, many of us embrace it. In fact, many of us strive like crazy day after day to make it add up. Adding the “good” days to the positive side of the equation and praying the negative days don’t drag us to the minus.

 

Jesus didn’t offer nor aspire to that sort of equation. 

Quite the opposite in fact! 

Titus 3:5-7 (TLB)

...he saved us—not because we were good enough to be saved but because of his kindness and pity—by washing away our sins and giving us the new joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us with wonderful FULLNESS—and all because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did so that he could declare us good in God’s eyes—all because of his great kindness; and now we can share in the wealth of the eternal life he GIVES us…

 

All the effort to advance the “good side of the equation” is simply misguided folly. 

We can’t begin to “perform” our way into the grace and mercy of GOD. Instead Christ did the performing for us at Calvary and He and He alone ushers us into amazing grace of the FATHER.

Your old sin-loving nature was buried with him by baptism when he died; and when God the Father, with glorious power, brought him back to life again, you were given his wonderful new life to enjoy. Romans 6:4 (TLB)

 

So why continue to rely on a failed equation? Why place your trust in your frail self?

Seems silly.

Instead be grateful that the math has already been worked out and the equation perfected by the amazing grace and mercy of Christ. Rather than trying and failing at performance, why not embrace, and live a life worthy and in appreciation of the grace that is ours?

 

Because of HIS kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 (TLB)

 

And THAT does “ADD UP”!

 

Have a blessed day…

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE