It's Got Nothing To Do With You!

I don't know about you but I spent a considerable amount of time wondering what the impact of my actions were on the blessings that I believed God had promised me but not realising that it has nothing to with me. You see we don't have a say when it comes to God's blessings and it has nothing to do with what we do because we are under grace. When we live under grace we are not under a reward system. We can't earn our blessings and our acts do not make us righteous! This is what the Pharasees and religious leaders thought they could do and Jesus referred to them as "a brood of vipers" (Matthew 12:34). If we were working to a rewards system then we would all be dead because that is the only thing our actions have earned us thus far! Right at the beginning, Genesis 6:5 God saw the nature of man and it disturbed and saddened him. It says " and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagining of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". I don't know about you but I struggle not to have bad thoughts! I just have to think about some of the people I work with and if want to smack them upside their head (don't judge me, you probably think the same). It's the nature of man, since our fall in the garden of Eden we opened Pandora's box and the contents were too much for us to handle. Here is the beautiful part, God knowing the end from the beginning already made an exit plan for us, I can see it now, the father the son and the Holy Spirit discussing creation and when they got to man the father says to the son and the Holy Spirit "so how do we want to handle this problem that they will get themself into?" And the son replies "don't worry, I will take their place, all their faults, weaknesses, failures, short comings, transgression whatever; put it on me! I will bear it and I will go down to the grave and conquer death so that they have a chance to come home! I will redeem them with my own blood and make them righteous! I will come back and sit at your right hand father, pleading and interceding on their behalf continuously! I will be the sacrificial lamb, spotless and without blemish so that their offering may be acceptable in your sight! I will cut of the power of death from them so that they can have eternal life! I will do this for them!"

What is grace, it is the undeserved and unmerited favour and mercy of God. So this is why we cannot earn our blessings, we didn't deserve them, it's a gift! One that is given just because... We need to stop trying to earn and start learning to give and give unconditionally back to God. As it is freely given to us, so must it be freely given to others! This is the action we are called to!