Child of Blessing

Scripture:
"In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Galatians 3:14

Observation:
Christ paid the price so that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to all the people of the world and so that we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Application:
It does not take very long when I read the books of the New Testament to realize that the work Jesus completed on the cross was not just a good thing.

Blessing. Promise. Hope. Good news. Words such as these liter the pages of the Bible. People were risking life and liberty for the JOY of their relationship with Jesus. They forsook everything that they knew and became outcasts of their society to follow the teaching of the apostles.

When I examine my own life I am challenged by this. It often feels like I more of a struggle for me. It is like I waste my energy pursuing something that I feel like I can’t achieved.
There are days when my honestly struggle to not get discouraged. To not feel condemned.

That is not how God wants it to be. The coolest thing about God is that He does not view me as work in progress. He views me as being complete. Not because my lifestyle is perfect, far from it. My inability to live up to the standards of God is precisely why God sent Jesus into the world. He established a new law. A good law. One that only requires faith to make a person whole. It no longer has anything to do with my performance.

My faith does not excuse my sin; it removes it. Gone. Never happened. Done away with. Jesus bore the burden of all my sin on the cross. Sins of my past, sins of my present, and the sins of my future are all covered. Every blessing of the Bible has been sealed on my life.

Prayer:
I know my ways. I understand my struggles. It is rare that I come up with a new one as the things to which I fall to are things that I have fallen to for many years. That is the most amazing thing about Your grace. It is new each day; even when I need it for a repeat of the same old mistakes.

While I have been made complete in Christ, I realize that I will never be complete on earth. Each day presents to me an opportunity to move closer to the day that I will find the completeness that is to come in the life that follows.

Help me to walk in freedom. When guilt and condemnation follow me around; I want to know Your good news. I have wasted so much time trying to earn something that You have already given to me. Help me to live my life as a child of blessing. Help the reality of that sink deep into the core of who I am. Help me to extend the reality of that great love to others around me. I present myself to You tonight and ask that I be a vessel that is poured out on others.