We deserve what we get and a million times worse
A friend helped me buy a new truck, my first new truck. I was not overwhelmed by it; I looked upon it as a gift, even though I was going to have to pay for it. I felt so undeserving that I was almost intimidated by it. I promised myself to forever take perfect care of it. That first consecration to the truck went so deep, that I still have it to this day. Today its old and inefficient, I’ve wrecked it and it’s seen a few other problems generated by me, but I can’t say good-bye to it. It’s a part of me.
We are undeserving of every good thing that we receive. And if we have life, if we woke up this morning, we have received at least one good thing, we have much for which to be thankful. God has been very gracious to us. And if we really thought about it, we receive many, many good things. Yet, we are undeserving of them all. But, how many don’t look at their life that way? How many feel they deserve all the benefits that they are loaded with? Many, many do.
Are you the type of person, who if you received $1 million, would be so humble to feel obligated to guard it as a gift and spend it extremely carefully? Or, would you blow it all on foolishness and self-indulgence? The first takes humility to effect and the second comes out of proud, boastful arrogance. “I got $1 million and spent it all in two years!”
Do we deserve death? Most would readily cry, NO! But, really, don’t we deserve death? Don’t we deserve eternal death? How much misery would the world be spared if we ceased to exist? Of course, it may be that we can be humbled and become a service to this world. But, honestly, how often does this happen and does it compensate for the misery we bring?
Shouldn’t we rather be asking God to kill us? That may sound foolish, but if we had a view of ourselves, a view by perfect eye-sight, wouldn’t each one of us say to God, “I deserve hell. Please, Sir, give it to me now”? I believe that very thing will be said on judgment day, when everyone, including Satan will see with unbiased vision what they did during the period of their existence. The Bible says that even Satan will bow his knee and confess that God was right all along and that he deserves hell.
We don’t know what we deserve. That’s why grace means so little to so many. Receiving something we don’t deserve is a non-issue to multitudes. Many don’t attach unmerited favor to anything. They work for their reward; they get what they feel they deserve. It’s as simple as that. No thank-you’s to their Creator and Benefactor; but, rather, a disgust toward anyone proposing the idea of gratitude!
On another idea, how much ingratitude there is from people who speak of God, but who see their wants as needs? What we consider as necessities to life, really are non-necessities which have been programmed into us because we exposed ourselves to the media: the TV, the radio, the internet, the billboards. It’s inevitable that opening our senses to the devil’s media will pervert our sense of what we really need the most, a self-denying life.
Christ’s media exposes our senses to a whole different rendition of needs. The Bible, nature, serving the worthy poor, uplifting the prisoners of vice and self-inflicted bad habits, sharing the love of God to a world of skeptics; all of this inspires us with appreciation of what we get, and even of the grace of our God for His infinite, unmerited blessings.
We are undeserving of every good thing that we receive. And if we have life, if we woke up this morning, we have received at least one good thing, we have much for which to be thankful. God has been very gracious to us. And if we really thought about it, we receive many, many good things. Yet, we are undeserving of them all. But, how many don’t look at their life that way? How many feel they deserve all the benefits that they are loaded with? Many, many do.
Are you the type of person, who if you received $1 million, would be so humble to feel obligated to guard it as a gift and spend it extremely carefully? Or, would you blow it all on foolishness and self-indulgence? The first takes humility to effect and the second comes out of proud, boastful arrogance. “I got $1 million and spent it all in two years!”
Do we deserve death? Most would readily cry, NO! But, really, don’t we deserve death? Don’t we deserve eternal death? How much misery would the world be spared if we ceased to exist? Of course, it may be that we can be humbled and become a service to this world. But, honestly, how often does this happen and does it compensate for the misery we bring?
Shouldn’t we rather be asking God to kill us? That may sound foolish, but if we had a view of ourselves, a view by perfect eye-sight, wouldn’t each one of us say to God, “I deserve hell. Please, Sir, give it to me now”? I believe that very thing will be said on judgment day, when everyone, including Satan will see with unbiased vision what they did during the period of their existence. The Bible says that even Satan will bow his knee and confess that God was right all along and that he deserves hell.
We don’t know what we deserve. That’s why grace means so little to so many. Receiving something we don’t deserve is a non-issue to multitudes. Many don’t attach unmerited favor to anything. They work for their reward; they get what they feel they deserve. It’s as simple as that. No thank-you’s to their Creator and Benefactor; but, rather, a disgust toward anyone proposing the idea of gratitude!
On another idea, how much ingratitude there is from people who speak of God, but who see their wants as needs? What we consider as necessities to life, really are non-necessities which have been programmed into us because we exposed ourselves to the media: the TV, the radio, the internet, the billboards. It’s inevitable that opening our senses to the devil’s media will pervert our sense of what we really need the most, a self-denying life.
Christ’s media exposes our senses to a whole different rendition of needs. The Bible, nature, serving the worthy poor, uplifting the prisoners of vice and self-inflicted bad habits, sharing the love of God to a world of skeptics; all of this inspires us with appreciation of what we get, and even of the grace of our God for His infinite, unmerited blessings.
posted by David | 11:10 AM
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