I hope you accept your imperfection and sin.
I do not mean to accept it in the way that you are OK with it – but to accept it in the sense that no matter what you do – you will fall short of living up to God’s standard.
Said differently: You can’t work your way out of sin. So get comfortable with grace.
This is clear as Jesus talks to the rich young ruler.
There is nothing man can do to be saved.
But what man cannot do – God can do.
In his book, The Applause of Heaven, Max Lucado points out that the attitude of the rich young ruler here is similar to the final judgment:
“And if you have trouble digesting what Jesus said to the rich young ruler, then his description of the judgment day will stick in your throat.
It’s a prophetic picture of the final day: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’”
Astounding. These people are standing before the throne of God and bragging about themselves . The great trumpet has sounded, and they are still tooting their own horns. Rather than sing his praises, they sing their own. Rather than worship God, they read their résumés. When they should be speechless, they speak. In the very aura of the King they boast of self. What is worse—their arrogance or their blindness?
You don’t impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane. You don’t boast about your crayon sketches in the presence of Picasso. You don’t claim equality with Einstein because you can write “H(2)O.”
And you don’t boast about your goodness in the presence of the Perfect.”
We are called to be humble, broken, and dependent on a loving, all caring God.
Take joy in that all we need is Jesus.
Luke 18:18-30:
Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”
And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”
But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Matthew 5:3:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Ephesians 2:8-10:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
I love you.
-Dad