I Gave Up

Psalm 36:5-9 –

‘Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.’

Did anyone else start the new year with hobbies they were going to take up or projects they were going to do? Anyone else fail on the second day? I decided to do one of those films where you take a second-long video each day of the year and then make it into a compilation video at the end of the year. By the 2nd January I had given up, feeling a bit of a failure. This is sometimes how I feel with God, making big grand plans to do things with and for him and then giving up and not feeling good enough. But the good news is that this is not how God operates: he doesn’t see us as failures, he doesn’t put a tick next to our name when we have done something good and an x by our name when we have done something bad. He loves us unconditionally, more than we can ever imagine, beyond our transgressions.

I love what Ravi Zacharias said:

‘One of the most staggering truths of the Scriptures is to understand that we do not earn our way to heaven...works have a place - but as a demonstration of having received God’s forgiveness, not as a badge of merit of having earned it.’

Phew, the pressure is off! Often I have to remind myself not to strive but to accept God’s love in full. Psalm 36:5-9 is a beautiful reminder and comfort of God’s vast love for us.  I want this year to be a year where I know more than ever before how loved I am by our Heavenly Father and I pray that for all of us today.

Prayer – Thank you Lord for your love and that I don’t have to strive for it.