Recovery Christian Center Daily Meditation - 5/2/12 - The Gift of Grace and Mercy
"Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life." Titus 3:3-7 NLT
Unfortunately one of the traps many recovering people can fall into is a sense of entitlement and the thinking that we are making this new way of life possible. We begin to think that we have earned our blessing and God us something because we are saved and in recovery. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We have forgotten that it God grace and mercy and Christ's sacrifice that all us to live this new life. Grace is simply receiving what we have not earned and mercy is not receiving what we truly earned. We must remember that what we truly earned was death because of how we were living before coming to Christ and into recovery. All of this is a gift that we could never possibly earn. Instead of a sense of entitlement we need to approach our new lives from humility due to the realization that if it hadn't been for God we would not be where we are.
"Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life." Titus 3:3-7 NLT
Unfortunately one of the traps many recovering people can fall into is a sense of entitlement and the thinking that we are making this new way of life possible. We begin to think that we have earned our blessing and God us something because we are saved and in recovery. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We have forgotten that it God grace and mercy and Christ's sacrifice that all us to live this new life. Grace is simply receiving what we have not earned and mercy is not receiving what we truly earned. We must remember that what we truly earned was death because of how we were living before coming to Christ and into recovery. All of this is a gift that we could never possibly earn. Instead of a sense of entitlement we need to approach our new lives from humility due to the realization that if it hadn't been for God we would not be where we are.
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