Nothing You've Done

Personally for me one of the biggest struggles after moving into Binghampton was self righteousness. You have all these people telling you how great you are, how awesome it is you have picked up your blonde haired, blue eyed children and moved them to the hood, how strong your faith must be that you would choose to live in a dark, poverty stricken, crime ridden, drug infested neighborhood.

And you start to believe it. There is not a thief in the world that can slip in the back door of your life and rob you of a heart like Jesus' like the thief of self righteousness.

"Do not say in your heart...it is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land...Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart."

Deut 9:4-6

As we head into Christmas full swing I hope my heartbeat is, nothing you've done. I pray that as we live, teach, neighbor and friend, we continually remember, nothing you've done.

Jesus came to this earth as a baby over 2,000 years ago and it is not because of anything we did or could have done. Nothing I've done or will ever do deserves a love like this, deserves redemption so great, deserves mercy so abundant, grace so overflowing or such a Savior.

But because of Him. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved...so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."

My prayer for this Christmas is that we all realize there is nothing we've done to deserve it, nothing we can do to earn it, nothing we can do to pay it back, but a perfect gift is for each of us to receive, that asks.

So I write what I write and live where I live, with a humble heart and a grateful attitude that He would call me, so that He might be made known.