His Gospel's big enough for my here and now.
2 Peter 1:3 says By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to Himself...
Really - everything?? There tends to be some gaps in my thinking and my doing. These are little guideposts telling me what I am truly trusting in or looking to for joy. You know what I mean? Monday mornings as I rush to get things going, when my child is whining for the umpteenth time today, when language feels like it will never come or my days are too full. I think we will always struggle with a "gap" as we grow in our walks (1 Cor. 13:12). But, I keep thinking about this verse and how Jesus came to save me from what I'm currently struggling with. This news is still saving me. This is a grace that reaches down to where I am, in my current battles. This is a very good thing because it keeps me prizing the gospel. It's liberating to realize I am still very much a mess - but the gospel is for messy people! The closer I draw to a Holy Father the more His blazen purity reveals my stains. I'm tempted to pretend I don't see those stains or try to work those stains white again. My pride wants me to try to liberate myself. Feel good about myself. Justify myself. Prove myself. In a myriad of ways we can all do this. Hear key word? Self. Listen to this liberation:
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2 Cor. 5:15
True change comes as I experience grace for myself each messy or miraculous moment. I'm often more shaped by my circumstances or the world than I am by this grace. It's a fact that I have this storehouse of grace available for me right where I am so I don't have to live like a spiritual miser each day. Listen to this story I read that's a great illustration for reminding myself of what I have each moment in Christ...
"A friend recently recounted to me the story of Hetty Green, known as the Wicked Witch of Wall Street in the early part of the last century. The story goes that she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat her son's broken leg that he had to have it amputated after it had gone gangrene. Yet, she was born into a wealthy family and died with a net worth of millions of dollars. My friend summed up Green's life with the statement 'she never tapped into her wealth.' "
Taken from By His Wounds You are Healed: how the message of Ephesians transforms a woman's identity by Wendy Alsup.
