Grace for the brokeness
I have often described sin as brokenness or being "busted up" inside. There are things about me that are definitely broken. Things that are so "busted up" that I painfully wish they would be fixed. They are weaknesses that I strive to overcome and yet progress often is set back by occurrence of another example of my multiple imperfections. The words of David Crowder in the song "Wholly Yours" seem to be my motto:
"But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean"
It is amazing how my fallenness affects me. Outside of the moral realm, I fall short of being what I should be. For me it most often comes in the form of forgetfulness. The sheer number of times I sincerely meant to do something or told my family and friends that I would follow through only to be erased from my memory in the span of seconds is beyond counting. How many times has my precious wife asked me to help here to perform a small task or have I told someone, "Oh yeah, I need to do ___" only to have it prance away in the black hole that is my memory. I don't even want to try to count because it passed ridicuolous several miles ago.
Oh yeah, there are factors. There are at times reasons, even ones that are very good. Reasons that can even pass for good excuses and sometimes even earn forgiveness and understanding on the part of those who were forgotten. Yet even those factors only serve to highlight the fact that I am broken.
I only have one hope. Grace. In some ways I mean grace from others. But really I mean God's grace. The all sufficient, weakness-magnifying, sin-killing grace that flows like a rushing river from the cross. The grace Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Now I don't think Paul wanted to be weak or that by boasting in his weaknesses he meant that he would let sin just have its effect. I believe that in the situation he found himself in he embraced Christ's grace at an even deeper level. His brokenness and weakness was left there by God to deepen his dependence on and understanding of grace.
God's grace does not cover our weaknesses or take them all away. Some times it brings them to the surface and we see all the more the power and magnitude of the love of God for us. Christ loves the broken and needy. His grace is not the one-time fix all. It is the eternal love of God dispalyed to us in Christ in spite of us! It is sufficient for even those weaknesses we struggle with until this life is over. In fact, it is sufficient for eternity:
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7
I believe everyday I am more and more aware of my deep need for God's grace in every area of my life. I am learning of its sufficiency and am prayerful that it will work in me in ways that in spite of my weaknesses will bring God much glory.
Posted by Jack
|
at
2:39 PM
0 comments:
Post a Comment