In my family's home we celebrate the major holidays for one month. It was a tradition my husband and I established in the first year of our marriage. As it is the month of love, I would like to take time to reflect on how God loves His people.
My God loved me enough to die for me. I am far from deserving of it and am well aware of that fact. I hurt when I realize how imperfect I am. He knows that I want to serve Him better, but in my own strength I cannot and that is a devastating reality for all of us who were born sinners into this world. When I pray my prayers are filled with repentance and pain. It is personally a struggle for me to believe God loves me at all most days. It is for this reason I know the Scriptures are true in Ephesians when it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." I cannot trust me. I know my sin encompasses my thoughts and actions. When I reflect on salvation, I know it can only come from outside of me.
My God, the Triune God, the only true God says to put my faith in who Jesus is and everything He has accomplished, because He perfectly did all that would bring salvation to the people who would place their faith in Him alone for salvation. Every year for Christmas season, the church reflects on the birth of Christ, but when I consider Christ's birth, I only think of how He came to die an agonizing death as the penalty of my sin. The sin that haunts me is what lead to the death of someone that we treat as a special baby in a manger every Christmas, but He was not just some baby, Jesus was and is God. Jesus is God. Then after his agonizing death, He conquered death 3 days later proving He was God. The other people in the Bible required the power of God to raise them, but He rose on His own because He is God.
One of my favorite memories of my late father is when I had the joy of seeing him beat up a man in a play. I remember I was about 5 years old and cheering loudly in the crowd. From then I believed my father could save me from anything, but life showed me very well that he could not help me, even as he desired to, but my God's salvation is guaranteed to me. My Heavenly Father knows my hurt and His promise of salvation to me is final. If I am not worthy of salvation, why would God choose to save me? I am made worthy because He chooses to save me. That is all and nothing more to the story. There is the saying "You can't turn a 'ho into a housewife.", but God looks to an unworthy people and says I am loyal to you always.
So, it is I push forward in the faith not because I am worthy, but because God in His love for me is my salvation. It will never be about how I feel or what I can do in my own strength, and any good I do is because of love for Him, because my good is not enough to save me, and if you are also a Christian who struggles to believe God loves you, I pray my words are a reminder to you as well of the hope we have in Christ.
"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:6-8
Trust in God's promise,
~Mrs. Sarchet
