As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.
Colossians 2:6
Keep it simple
Do you remember the day you received Christ? You certainly didn’t have anything to offer Him, you just came as you were! You received Jesus completely by placing your faith in God’s amazing grace. You hadn’t fasted a day in your life or paid your tithe, or even read the Bible, yet you received the greatest gift, the greatest miracle of all — your salvation! I am sure as you look back on that moment there is such joy as you remember that simple moment of trust and surrender.
The danger in the so called “mature” Christian life is losing the simplicity of that saving moment in our relationship with God. Instead of basking in His undeserved favor, we begin to think we have to earn His blessing. So we try a little harder to be good, we try to pray longer and read our Bibles more often and say yes to every ministry opportunity offered.
Even worse we begin to look at everyone else and measure their relationship with Christ by what they are or are not doing.
Paul said it best in Galatians 3:3
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
If we started by grace, we should continue by grace, keeping it simple.
Paul’s warns us about this very thing in 2 Corinthians 11:3:
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
What burdens are we heaping upon ourselves or others because we have ceased trusting God? To our own demise, we have depended on ourselves or others to bring about in the flesh what can only be accomplished supernaturally through the Spirit?
Perhaps when we step out of the “grace” living lane and begin to veer ever so slightly into the “law” lane the first thing to go is our joy. We are continually disappointed in ourselves and others and it is not long before a critical spirit shows up.
We have been saved, are being saved and continue to be saved by grace and grace alone.
That truth never changes. When we recognize that we bring nothing to the table except God’s grace, our life becomes simple and the joy of walking with Jesus day in and day out becomes our reality. We wake up and spend time with Him because we want to not because we have to!
Everything in our walk becomes exciting and new — led by the Spirit! The list of rules and regulations vanishes as our motive for loving Christ is simply – I love Him because He first loved me. I do not neglect so great a salvation and I appreciate, meditate and ponder upon that which I do not deserve, but now fully embrace.
My focus is on God and His love.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us. Romans 5:8
Just as the prodigal son came back to his father with nothing, so we come to God with nothing—no good works, no trophies, no awards. We come to God to accept what only He can give us—salvation through His Son. Our works amount to nothing.