BIBLE READING:
Psalm 103:8–16
MESSAGE:
One of the realities that grieves spiritually healthy Christians is how often we fail the Lord. We are saddened when it feels as though we make little spiritual progress, fall repeatedly into besetting sins, and fail to see meaningful impact for Christ’s Kingdom. In such low seasons of the Christian life, we must be careful to avoid two dangerous responses.
First, we must avoid the performance trap. After becoming Christians, we often put away obvious sins and see positive changes in our lives. Encouraged by this progress, we begin to feel confident—sometimes overly so. Then comes the inevitable failure. We fall back into old sins or neglect what we should have done. Believing we are now living on our own spiritual strength, we assume we have forfeited God’s blessings for an undeined period. Our expectation of God’s favor becomes tied to our perceived performance. We were saved by grace, yet we attempt to live by performance. When we fail, we try harder instead of relying more deeply on grace. But the grace that saved us is the same grace that sustains and empowers us. Let failure teach us about grace—not drive us into legalism.
The second danger is spiritual amnesia—forgetting how God sees us, even in our sin and failure. Today’s Scripture reminds us that God knows our weakness and remembers that we are frail. He sees us as His dependent children and responds with compassion, patience, and mercy. He does not want us trapped in self-made pits of discouragement because of our failures.
God remembers who and what we are. Let these liberating truths move us to live the Christian life with deeper dependence on His grace, rather than running endlessly on the performance treadmill of self-effort. At the same time, we must not allow God’s compassion to tempt us into presumptuous sin—taking His mercy lightly.
FURTHER READING:
Psalm 19:12
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for remembering how weak I am and for showing me such great compassion. Help me to become all that Your grace intends me to be. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Adebayo Funsho Adaramola is the General Overseer of Light Chapel International (Jesus is Light Ministries), Agodo Egbe, Lagos