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Our Testimony of Grace
by Jerry Ousley I know you've heard the old saying, "Don't do as I do; do as I say!" I thought I'd never get myself into that position. But I did. Our daughter came home from school one day. It hadn't been a good day for her because she had gotten into a disagreement with a classmate. She was upset and began bad-mouthing the girl. As a good father who was also her pastor I reminded her that we weren't to speak evil about others. I tried to reason with her that perhaps the other girl had something going on in her life that caused her to be in such a bad mood. It wasn't what she wanted to hear but she accepted it and I felt I had done my good fatherly-Christian duty. A week or so later something had happened in church. On the way home I began doing some bad-mouthing of my own. As I went on and on about how wrong this brother was I glanced in the rearview mirror. Sitting in the backseat with a confused look on her face sat our daughter. Immediately the Holy Spirit smote my heart. A lump the size of a golf ball developed in my throat as I realized that I was now doing exactly what I had counseled her about a few days before. Now I had a choice to make. I could justify myself in some manner saying that this situation was different but it wasn't different. I could use those words, "Don't do as I do; do as I say!" But then the only thing I would be teaching her was that kids don't enjoy the same privileges as adults do. The only other choice was to admit my error, correct myself, repent, and tell her that I was sorry and wrong. Do you know how hard it is to admit that you're wrong, especially to your children? Once again, pulling my foot from my mouth (which is very hard to do while driving down the road) I swallowed hard to get rid of that golf-ball size lump in my throat and did the latter. You know what? I think admitting that I was wrong, repenting of my action, and confessing to her that we all make mistakes from time to time did more to teach her than my counsel a few days before. That was an act of grace. It was grace because despite the fact that I was wrong God forgave me. We are told to confess our faults one to another (see James 5:16). That can be a very difficult thing to do because it requires us to expose ourselves to others. What will they do with that information? If they are true believers then we should trust that they will not go around spreading rumors. But that isn't always the case in the real world. We take a chance but let me tell you that taking this chance is better than keeping it in and either purposely or accidentally giving others the impression that we are flawless. For way too long the Church as a whole has given the impression that Christians are perfect and sinless. Oh we talk about grace. We preach and teach that we are saved by grace. But when it comes right down to it for the most part we have shown that we have merit with God because of our good works. We cover our sins and hide our faults from others. All this really accomplishes is to give the impression that we are so good. I'll never forget early in my salvation experience how that I always felt I was falling short (and we do). I felt this way because it seemed other Christians were free from temptation and sin but I was always falling into something that I needed to repent of. It made me feel like I wasn't cut out to be a Christian. Then one day I remember telling the Lord in prayer that even though I was so bad, so undeserving of the free gift of salvation, I was going to serve Him anyway. That was the day God revealed to me His grace. Christians aren't perfect people. Yes we are told to be perfect as God is perfect. But we can only accomplish that by coming to God in repentance and allowing Him to inhabit us with His Holy Spirit. From that day forward we have entered into a struggle. It is a conflict between right and wrong. We may find ourselves confessing all day long but that's okay because we are admitting our faults and sins and God will forgive each and every one. We will discover that as we progress in the Kingdom those faults and sins will begin to vanish from our lives. Let's be quick to confess our faults and allow others to see God's grace in our lives. That is our testimony of grace and it is so powerful that other imperfect people will be drawn to the light of God's perfect grace. Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |