I am at the Southwest Focus Retreat for Pastors at the Oaks Conference Centre in Lake Hughes, CA. So far it’s been a really amazing couple of days with leaders, lay and clergy. I have been refreshed doing things I love like hiking and exploring. We have been challenged to think about how God makes us fully alive and restores us when we have lost energy.
We were discussing tonight what that looks like, what challenges it for us right now. Certain things that I am dealing with sprang quickly to mind. I got discouraged because I didn’t follow directions, and I checked in on business at home. I found out there are some issues waiting for me when I get back, and it just took the wind out of my sails.
I began to think about what it means to walk with God. I thought about how when you fail, it is you who fails. Failures weigh me down because I fail a lot. Failures to keep myself from sin, failures at work, failures in my home life. They are everywhere. And I can only blame myself.
Yet, when something goes right, as Christians we give God the glory. It is not us who succeed, lest pride overtake us. It is God, to His glory. So we give all the credit away, in humility, but take all the blame upon ourselves.
This is a recipe for disaster.
But the message of this retreat is the truth of who we are in Jesus. Because of His love for us, because of His sacrifice for us, because of His cleansing of us of our sins, we are wholly clean, and loved without end. We are loved by God, and there is nothing we can do about it.
It is this miracle, this unconditional relationship that changes everything and makes the first two concepts irrelevant. I can blame myself for all my failures, but to God, none of that matters. I can fail at everything – absolutely everything in life, but I can rest in the love of God for me that doesn’t care about those things that I am letting devastate me. I am perfect in the Father’s eyes because Jesus has made me white as snow.
This is a rich truth. I am grateful to God for getting me here at this time.
Tags: failure, love, relationship, salvation
