Give Yourself A Chance

There are times in a Christians experience when the reality of our sinfulness bears down on us with a heavy sense of condemnation. We feel like the younger brother in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. This young man in the story took all his inheritance from his father early, before his father had actually passed away. This in itself was a serious insult to his father and all the family, but that's not all of it. He then went into a distant country and spent it all in carousing and a debauched lifestyle, until finally there was none left. He was broke and had to work for a landowner feeding swine. 

When he realized his foolishness and wrong ways, he was overcome with guilt and shame for the way he had been. He decided to go back to his fathers house and ask if he could work and have a place to stay. In his mind he wasn't worthy to be his son anymore. He was overcome with shame and guilt and would be happy to be like one of his fathers employees. 

In one way he was right. He knew he had lived in a shameful way and wasn't worthy of any of the benefits that came by being a son in that family. But his solution was wrong. He thought the answer was to work his way into some kind of acceptance with his father, and maybe things would improve over time. After all, anything was better than the way he was living, among swine and the foulness that came with that.  His idea was based on his performance, a work based, merit based mindset. He thought, "If I do good enough, maybe it will make up for the bad that I've done."

Christians can slip into that mentality as well. We say we're saved by sheer grace not by our goodness or good deeds, yet act as though God's favor and love depends on how well we live.  When a sense of guilt or awareness of our sinfulness comes upon us, many times we purpose to,"do better" and to "overcome" or to be "more vigilant" in the future. 

We become like the young man in this parable. It's good that we confess our wrongs, but trying harder is our mistake. We need only to accept God's real forgiveness and welcoming grace to get the peace of mind we long for as we realize that just as Gods grace was sufficient to brings us to salvation, it is sufficient to keep us in salvation also.

Now, of course we need to repent and turn from our wrong ways no matter what they might be. But Christ offers love, forgiveness, mercy, cleansing, renewing, and reviving to those who call upon Him in simple faith and trust. 

Don't live under a self imposed burden of doing better next time. Rather, let Jesus relieve your soul of the burden of sin, guilt and the shame that nags at us from time to time. By faith, believe and receive His promise. He will not fail you, or burden you with even more weight. Instead, He will lift your load Himself, and let you be free to rejoice in His goodness and perfect love.