Living By Grace

It’s not about me. The more time I spend dwelling on my sin or disobedience, the more I make it about my actions. Yes, my actions that brought me here were wicked, and I need to repent of them. But getting back to following Jesus with everything in me isn’t achieved by analyzing exactly what went wrong and then making adjustments.

God’s kingdom doesn’t work like that. You can’t afford to forget the gospel! It’s about God’s glory. We are called to participate in it. We do that by letting go—letting go of our whole life. “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

Admitting that without His help we would be trapped in this sin forever. The harder we try (by our own strength) to pull ourselves out, the further we sink, because we can’t. We need God’s mercy and grace. We must live by it daily.

All we have to do is receive. Stop going in your own strength. Let go. Receive. Sit still. Listen.

Admit that without His intervention, you are doomed to sin and your whole life will spiral. It’s not fun for a prideful person to admit that he is not in control.

I just keep thinking: “I need to try harder.” “I need to figure out exactly what I did wrong so I can fix it.” “If I just keep trying, I can fix this.”

It’s all lies. Working harder won’t fix anything. Analyzing won’t fix anything. Just going and going won’t fix anything.

If it could, we could save ourselves.

The truth is, we need His grace every minute of every day.

That’s living by grace.