This week’s text is all about God’s mercy. Normally I don’t like to get too personal on my blog, rather I like to keep my blog posts a bit distant. However this week’s passage, Ephesians 2: 1-10 is anything but distant. This passage speaks straight to my heart and it is impossible to contemplate God’s overwhelming mercy and goodness without being personal.
How easy it is to get caught in the “norm” of what everyone else believes is appropriate. How easy it is to just go along with the media, the social norms, and with modern day pressures to conform. Thank the Lord that none of this was up to my own disciplined behavior or my own righteousness. Rather God saved me, through Jesus based on sheer mercy. I would have never been “good enough,” been able to make good enough choices, or behaved well enough-due to the sinful nature I have. Paul discusses this in saying “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world.”
One of my biggest stumbling blocks is low self-esteem. I have to work daily on this part of me-it can become encompassing and get in the way of even the gifts God created in me. It is easy for me to doubt my own thoughts, ideas, and initiatives only to later have someone else offer an idea I had previously thought of , and that idea go on to benefit a person or group. I hate doubting myself but I realize this is something I’m going to deal with forever. I have often thought that when Paul or other writers from the Bible write about being humble and not boastful that I’ve got it covered because of my ongoing struggle with doubting myself I usually take the humble route rather than the boastful route. I question myself immediately rather than questioning others, I have an automatic response, which I have to battle, to not assume I am wrong and everyone else is right.
Fortunately Paul goes on to say “By grace you have been saved” and “For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for goo works.” This passage gives me daily hope, reassures me when I am downtrodden and inspires me to new challenges. Luckily I do not have to rely on myself to know Christ. It is my faith in Jesus that saved me and now God’s mercy and grace flows across me. I like thinking that God has created unique things in me to allow me to make a contribution to the greater good. Lord knows I’ve made mistakes and have paid dearly for them but I’ve not paid nearly the debt Jesus paid for me-I may have been embarrassed or even humiliated but I’ve never had to give my life as Jesus did-in humiliation and shame all for me-so that GOODNESS & MERCY can follow me all my days.
Hi EW - I am glad that you found personal encouragement in Ephesians 2:1-10. Isn't it interesting that Paul starts out saying that "you were dead" due to the sins and transgressions of our past "in which we used to live"?? So we were dead while living!
ReplyDeleteThe two most important words that jump out at me in this section are the opening of 2:4 -- "BUT GOD" -- that makes all of the difference in the world.
And then Ephesians 2:10, we are God's handiwork, God's artistry, a piece of artwork created by God to accomplish certain good work while on planet earth. No reason for low self-esteem when viewing our giftedness from that perspective! Karen