Never Lose Faith In Yourself.....

Never Lose Faith In Yourself.....

Many years ago I heard a wee saying. Maybe somebody said it to me. Maybe I read it somewhere. I can’t remember. But it went like this….

“The Love of God won’t take you where the Grace of God can’t keep you”

You see, often in this lifetime we sit and wonder just exactly what it is that God wants from us. We have doubts and insecurities. We wonder if we and God are ok with each other. Yes, we’re saved. Yes, we’re redeemed. Yes, we’re washed in the blood. All that great stuff was settled at Calvary. But in our daily lifestyle I sometimes sit and think about Jesus. Just about our relationship with each other. Not as God and Christian. Not as Saviour and Saint. But just as person to person.

In several of my previous jobs I sometimes had to have an “appraisal” or a “career review”. It was designed to be an open, two-way discussion where me and the interviewer could talk to each other about our work relationship up to that point and our hope and targets for the next month, or year, or however long we agreed. Now, wouldn’t it be great if we could sit somewhere and have a one on one, person to person chat with Jesus and have a performance review? Wouldn’t it be great to just sit and chat about things that have happened in the past period of time and about things that would be expected over the next period of time?

Unfortunately the Christian faith isn’t like that. Because there are things that God wants from us that we might not want to give Him. He may have planned for us to go through a difficult experience. It may be in his plan that we must suffer a loss. Or, a hurt. Or, a disappointment. It may be that you have to sit and watch a loved one go through hurt and pain and know that there is nothing you can do to help them except just to be there for them. If we knew what pain or difficulty was ahead of us we might do what we could to avoid it.


But all too often we sit and talk and sing about our faith in God. And all too often we fail to realise, or fail to remember, that God has faith in us too. He has plans for us in this lifetime. But he also knows that we have the strength to handle whatever He sends our way - Whether we think we can or not. You see, the Love of God won’t take you where the Grace of God can’t keep you. He has faith in us that we can handle it. He knows we’ll fall but He gives us the strength to get back up again. He knows we’ll take a wrong turn but He’ll give us the strength to figure our way back again. He knows we’ll make mistakes but He gives us the strength to fix them. And this is the way it is for everyone in the Christian life.

But doesn’t it feel good to be able to sit quietly over a cup of tea or coffee and think that even though we mess up every single day, that we and Jesus are still alright.

 

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