Wouldn’t it be lovely if God would give us a spiritual to-do list of His expectations?
Follow this list of dos and don’ts for the week and you are good with God.
- Attend church 2-3 times a week.
- Pray every day.
- Do one kind deed a day.
- Give money to charity.
- Don’t take stuff that doesn’t belong to you.
- Volunteer in the church nursery once a month.
Most of us know that’s not how God works.
Christianity is not a religion of outward good works. It’s not a loyalty program that you join and get reward points for accomplishing a short list of requirements. Instead, it is built on a foundation of faith. What we do for God springs out of our trust in God and we base our faith on acceptance of His grace – that God made salvation possible through Jesus even when we, as lawbreakers, didn’t deserve it.
But it’s so easy to fall back into racking up the reward points with God. Yes, His grace has saved me but maybe I’ll be even more acceptable to Him if I do this and this and this and don’t do this and . . . But what if I fail to live up to the list one week? Will God no longer like me as much?
I fall into that trap. I’m the queen of the to-do list. Sad to say, I too often base my self-worth on how much of my list I’ve checked off by the end of the day and I tend to feel like a failure if I didn’t get it all done.
Why are to-do lists so appealing?
To-do lists work because they’re measurable and concrete. Religion would be a lot easier if God gave me a short list of what He expects from me. Righteousness based faith means I have to engage my brain and attitude, and my religion cannot remain rote. How can I possibly quantity God’s level of acceptance of me if the system is based on something so intangible as trust and commitment?
Even after millennia of being set free from a system of law, many Christians–all of us at one time or another–fall into the trap of thinking we still need to stir in some way to earn God’s acceptance of us. But if I create a faith-o-meter that compares God’s acceptance of me to the current strength level of my faith, I’ve missed the point. And maybe you have too.
What’s so wonderful about grace?
When my bible study group recently read Ephesians 2:1-10, we immediately jumped to the often-quoted verses of Ephesians 2:8,9. It was tempting to spout the familiar and move on without engaging with what Paul was talking about.
Then we backtracked to the lead-up verses in Ephesians 2:1-7.. Paul spells out what grace looks like. It’s phenomenal. God did all these incredible things for us when we didn’t deserve them. In fact, we were so unworthy, we actually deserved the death penalty. Sin has corroded us so much that we were more worthless than a barrel of rotten apples. Yet “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions (Eph 2:4,5).”
How do we respond to God’s grace?
How do we handle the whole grace-faith-works dilemma?
Think about this for a moment. How would you respond if someone gave you an incredible gift that would have life changing consequences? What would your feelings be toward that person for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t you feel tremendous gratitude? Wouldn’t you want to tell others the reasons for your success? Wouldn’t you feel inspired by their generosity?
If we truly understand the significance of this great thing God has done for us through Jesus Christ, we would be so thankful for He did for us that we would naturally respond in four ways:
Praise
We would want to praise God. We’d fall on our knees in worship, overwhelmed with deep emotion. To think: the great God of the Universe would reach down, rescue us when we were beyond despicable, and choose to use us for His glory. Wow!
Please
We would want to please our benefactor. We’d spend our waking moments brainstorming ways we could live up to being the person He believes we can be. We would be so overwhelmed with His love for us, we wouldn’t want to let Him down. Like the deep commitment between a husband and wife, we’d constantly be asking ourselves, what could I do to bring my Lord joy and delight?
Proclaim
We would want to proclaim His goodness to others. Yes! I’ve found this great gift. It’s changed my life! It’s available for you too. I don’t have to hoard it or keep it just for myself because there is plenty of grace to go around.
Pass forward
We would want to pass the gift forward. We’re so grateful that God in His mercy has forgiven us, we’ll want to forgive others in the same way so they get a taste of God’s lavish love and forgiveness. How could we possibly hold a grudge against someone’s small infraction against us when we have been forgiven of a lifetime of sin?
Extending God’s grace is a good idea for another reason. Some people wouldn’t pick up on the significance of the gift by merely hearing about it or reading about it in the Bible. The message of grace becomes more apparent when it’s lived out in front of us. You can free others from the “it’s all about what I do for Jesus” mentality by extending a measure of God’s grace to them.
Moving from works to grace
Do you still struggle with thinking you have to earn your way to God and prove to Him that you are worth His salvation? You know righteousness is based on faith, not on works, but you still reach for a spiritual to-do list?
My friend, I invite you to ponder the depths of God’s grace. Reach instead for a deeper understanding of God’s grace; how He has lavishly given you a gift that you don’t deserve but He does it because He loves you. Then ask yourself how you would want to respond to so great a gift.
I think you’ll find that anything you do for the lord from that point on will give you a deep sense of joy and pleasure because you get to honor the One who has given you so much.
My soon-to-be released book, Grateful Heart: 60 Reasons to Give Thanks in All Things, has a wonderful story about how someone passed forward grace to me. Preorder your copy here.
Other posts about grace
Amazing Grace: 6 Things Grace Can Do For You
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