Get This One Thing Right!

By Renee Burt

Maybe you’ve always been “good.” You’ve never made a whole lot of mistakes, you don’t struggle with guilt over the poor choices you’ve made along the way, and you’ve never felt like God was far away. That would be great…but the reality is that most of us have gone through periods of time when things just don’t feel right between us and God. I mean we know the Bible says He loves us…but we feel like we just aren’t doing enough to earn or deserve His love. What we’ve forgotten is that we never did do anything to earn or deserve His love in the first place…it was a gift to us! I still remember in my 20’s, when I recommitted my life to the Lord, how amazing it was to realize that He loved me despite my past…what a gift to me! But it didn’t take long for me to forget that His love was a gift…and that I didn’t have to “perform” or do everything just right to hold onto His love. I had forgotten that His love was there to hold ME…every day…despite my mistakes, and despite my feeble attempts to “get it right.” So if you don’t get anything else right, get this one thing right…you don’t have to earn His love. It was a gift the day you got saved…and it continues to be a gift every day of your life!

Galatians 3:2-4 MSG ~ Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

More devotions from Renee’s Fresh Manna