Not That Hard

This is the work of God, that you believe. John 6:29

Have you ever made something a lot harder than it really was?  I remember when we were planning our big remodeling and house addition several years ago.  The whole process was a bit overwhelming at first but I remember having specific problems with one thing; the clothes line.  I grew up hanging out laundry and it’s just kind of a rural thing to do, and I do it a lot.  With the remodel plans we were having trouble finding a good spot for the door.  I wanted it to be convenient to the laundry room and clothes line but I didn’t want the door in our bedroom so we were baffled.  We must have gotten out the house plans four or five times to think the problem through when Kevin, who was about ten, walked through the kitchen, and asked what we were thinking about.  We told him we were trying to find a place for the door close to the close line and we were having trouble finding a solution.  He studied the blueprints for about 30 seconds and said, “Well, why don’t you just move the clothesline.” He ran out to play and Dave and I just stared at each other thinking; boy did we ever make this hard…leave it to the kid to point out the obvious!

Satan likes to discourage and distract us, making things seem harder than they really are.  Getting to heaven should be the goal of us all but sometimes we can get pretty tangled up in the rules and our sinfulness.  God knows we’re gonna sin…He gets that; that’s why he is so merciful.  We can get ourselves in trouble though, when we give in to satan’s stinkin thinkin and tell ourselves we aren’t worthy of God’s love and mercy.  Duhh…we aren’t, but that doesn’t matter one little bit because he doesn’t give us his love and mercy because we deserve it, he gives it to us because he’s God and he wants to.  There is no deserving or earning involved.  When we get down on ourselves and our sinful nature it’s easy to think getting to heaven is way too hard and we are way too weak and small.  When that happens we are forgetting the one thing Jesus said that was designed to bring us into balance…believe!  Believe in the goodness and mercy of God.  Believe in the almighty power of a loving God who can do anything he wants.  Believe in the fact that our faith is a mystery that we aren’t ever going to fully understand; nor do we have to in order to receive the full effect of its benefits.

Our job is to believe that God will patch our leaks, chips and cracks.  Our job is to believe that in our weakness he will show his strength.  Our job is to believe that his love is mighty enough to part the Red Sea so it can do anything we need. Our job is to believe that God loves us in spite of everything we might point out as weak or unlovable. Our job is to believe that we are created, protected and guided by a God who loves us with his whole heart and wants only one thing; to bring us home into his arms. Our job isn’t really that hard; you might just need to move your clothes line out of the way so you can have room to believe a little more.

A Seed To Plant: Make a list of the things that are getting in the way of believing that God has you completely in the palm of his hand.

Blessings on your day!
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