I Deserve to Suffer

I have no self control when it comes to potato chips. I crave them. Ruffles. Lays. Target brand Archer Farms Maui Onion Kettle Chips...oh my! That being said, I did it....AGAIN. I ate too many chips and now my tummy hurts. Ugh. I knew when I was eating them that I should stop, but I didn't. I just kept munching on those deliciously salty and perfectly crunchy chips.

I DESERVE TO SUFFER!


I deserve to lay here awake all night while my stomach gurgles and cramps in complaint of my weak character. (Click to Tweet)

That's what we tell ourselves, isn't it? We made another mistake and we are just getting what we deserve. We have to face the consequences. Sometimes, there is no way around it. We do suffer for our poor decisions.

Wondrously, our salvation/our redemption stands in stark contrast to the "way things go." Through Christ we don't get what we know we deserve. We get MERCY. But it doesn't stop there, because we also get what we could never deserve. We get GRACE, unmerited favor and blessing.

We deserve to suffer. But today is a new day! We have fresh, new merciful love, and all-sufficient grace that is more than we could ever need.

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:8-12

Grace to Your Mountain!

Years go my husband and I were facing a mountain of debt. Now some people find themselves in that kind of situation when there has been a job loss, sickness or hospital bills...that was not the case with us. We made this mess ourselves with our own poor management. It was embarrassing and intimidating. Things were dark in the shadow of that mountain.

But we swallowed our pride and signed up for Financial Peace class. We started to chip away at that mountain. Honestly it feels like you’ve got a toothpick. For several years we were chipping at this giant mountain with our little tiny toothpicks wondering will it ever go away??

But one day…we got a check in the mail…a big one.

That check swept away what remained of our debt mountain like it was just a little pile of dirt.

It was amazing!

We did nothing to deserve that money…we didn’t earn that money…it was a gift.
It was God’s grace to our mountain!

Zechariah 4:7 says ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the finishing stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"

Zerubbabel was facing a mountain, he was trying to build a temple for the Lord and there were lots of obstacles, there was a lot of opposition…but Zechariah prophesied that mountain would be leveled…the temple would be completed and the people would shout GRACE!

What a great word to shout!

I know that many of us are facing challenges today, and maybe it’s even a mess you that made. You might be saying " I don't deserve help with this." That is what God's scandalous grace is all about.

Today I want to shout:

GRACE to your mountain of shame.
GRACE to your mountain of debt.
GRACE to your mountain of pain.

Grace to the obstacles and opposition you experience in pursing God’s plan.

You can finish…there is victory…there is freedom and hope!

We are saved and our lives are truly changed by God’s great grace!