grace, peace, and mercy

Psalm 119:32 (NIV) I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.

I have a confession to make; I am a guilt-ridden person. I even feel guilty about feeling guilty. How’s that for dysfunction?

Yesterday, we went to church and throughout the sermon my thoughts wandered, in a good way, of course. I thought about how often I’ve heard the words, grace, peace, and mercy during a church service. It made me wonder, why, after all these years, haven’t I taken those words to heart and believed with my entire being that God is for me.

Makes me think of a person who got to see the Lord in his throne room and immediately knew he was in trouble. The prophet Isaiah had an experience like no other and had every reason to cower before God’s throne;

^{Isaiah 6:1} In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple . . .    ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

When Isaiah stood before the Lord, he knew it was the end. He was toast. But rather than fry him to a crisp, God addressed Isaiah’s sinful state with mercy.

 

Isaiah 6:⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

That’s all it took for God; Isaiah was forgiven. Immediately, God gives Isaiah a job to do— take a message to God’s people. Having experienced such grace, Isaiah jumps at the chance to do God’s work. 

 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 

Isaiah had let go of the past, his sin was atoned for and he was ready to do God’s bidding. He was ready to move on knowing that God was for him.

The Bible says that God has cast my sin into the sea. He has removed it as far away from me as the east is from the west. God is for me, not against me. So why do I hold on to my guilt and shame when it’s so clear that God has moved on? Having guilt over my sins is a little like carrying a heavy suitcase during a race. All it does is slow me down. What I need to do, is pitch it to the side and run like crazy.

Hebrews 12:¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us . . . 

Guilt is what hinders me from running in the path of God’s commands. It’s not making me a better person, it’s not atoning for my sins. All it’s doing is weighing me down preventing me from running the best race ever. 

I need to remember that; God is for me, not against me. You need to remember that; God is for you, not against you. God is for us. For us! May we all approach the throne of God with joy and confidence. Ready to run like Isaiah and ready to answer his call, “Here am I. Send me!”

poor in spirit

Today, I was thinking about how much I want to know and understand God. I know that God is good and fair and just, but what does that mean? In other words, what’s God like? Does he have a favorite food? Does he even eat food? What does he spend most of his time thinking about? And what kind of work is he doing in heaven? I guess I just really want to understand the very nature of God.

Jesus told his disciples that if they knew him, then they knew the Father, because he and the Father are one. In search of satisfying my curiosity about God, I decided to go to the beatitudes. Seems like as good a place as any to find out more about who God is, and, hopefully, learn more about his very heart. 

For the next several weeks, I’m going to meditate on the beatitudes in the hopes of learning more about our amazing God. Without further ado, I give you Beatitude Number One. 

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. NIV

It’s tempting to think that this verse is about being poor. It is. But not the kind of poor we think of. The poor in spirit are those who realize that they can’t save themselves; those who look to Jesus’ work on the cross and know that it was he who earned their salvation.  

I think the NLT version makes this point even clearer.

Matthew 5:3 God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.

This is Christianity 101. Thinking that you can get into heaven because you’re good enough just won’t cut it. Because, well mostly, we’re not that good, not really. It reminds me of Jesus’ parable about the wedding feast. As the story goes, a guest arrives in his own clothing rather than wearing the wedding clothes that the host has provided. 

Matthew 22:11-12 But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless.

Maybe this man was speechless because he’d known all along what clothes he needed to wear, but he decided to come to the feast on his own terms. The host had no choice but to throw him out. To us it may seem harsh, but to God it’s the truth. If we try to enter heaven with our “good works” they will never be enough. We will never be enough. 

I have to admit that there have been times that I’ve felt pretty self-righteous. It’s a real temptation to want to get to heaven on my own merit. But in knowing the truth, the truth that sets us free, there’s some relief. A big sigh. A thank goodness I don’t have to be left out of the heavenly wedding feast. I even get a new set of clothes to wear--Christ’s righteousness.  After all, as one who is poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven belongs to me. And just in case you’re wondering, in Christ, the kingdom of God is yours, too.