Weekly Devotional: June 13, 2010

Words to Grow On

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

~ James 2:12-13

When you truly come to understand the cross of Jesus Christ, it will radically change your life. When you come to understand how sinful you are before holy God and everything he sacrificed to redeem you, it will transform the way you see and understand the world, and those around you.

When we only see the cross in part, when we edit the sacrifice of Jesus our lives remain, for the most part, unchanged. We still cling to the fear that there are sins and failures that God cannot forgive; we look at others through that lens of limitation and justify our lack of mercy or compassion. In either case, we fail to trust the mercy and grace of God and begin making our own rules – we continue putting self at the center of our decisions.

God’s mercy and God’s grace are not given to make us slaves, but rather to set us free. Grace is not a license to sin; in fact grace goes beyond the requirements of the law. Lust becomes adultery of the heart and hatred becomes murder. What that means is that the law that gives freedom; the law of grace frees us from the prideful, fearful limitations that keep us from the abundant life God has given us in Christ Jesus.

To embrace your pride and the fear that follows is to choose your way over God’s; it is a failure to trust. We can know about the cross and even believe it, but until we receive that message and surrender to God’s grace our lives cannot be transformed. We must allow God to “search us and know me, to know my anxious thoughts; to see if there is any offensive way in me,” let conviction do its work and trust God to bring healing and strength. Only then will we have received God’s mercy and grace, and only then can we truly offer it to others and find freedom.

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