The Difference Between Grace And Legalism

Yup, been awhile.‌ But I‌’m trying to fire up the engines again!

One of the things that I have been learning recently is how God, not man, does that thing called Grace.

We all have our struggles with unhealthy things that God is like “yeah you don’t want to be doing that… it won’t end well for you…”. And for every one you work to get a handle on, there’s always 100 more waiting for you to tackle.‌ Always 100 more… Because we cannot ever get it actually right, we can’t win all the battles. We’re all on the journey of self improvement and aligning our thoughts and actions to be more like Jesus. It’s here that I‌ arrived at questions.

If you know I am still messing up, how can you answer my prayers?

Why would you answer this prayer if my motives are mixed… Part of me wants it for the good reasons, but the other part of me wants it for myself…

I’m still struggling and messing up over here, but you’re still going to help me over there?‌ How’s that work?‌ Why aren’t you coming down hard on me for this?‌‌ Why are you focusing on that, and not this thing right here that I am still messing up!

Long have I struggled with these questions. A really long time. But it wasn’t until recently that I could hear and begin to understand God’s answer.

You see if God held back answering your prayers because of other non-associated sins and struggles in your life, then he would not ever answer any of your prayers!

If God chose not to answer your prayers because your motives were complex and mixed, guess what?‌ He would basically not answer any of your prayers!

And then I arrived at the feet of Grace. You see God doesn’t expect us to work on all our sins and struggles and overcome them all right now this instant. He knows you can only handle 1 or 2 maybe 3 battles at a time. You have hundreds, thousands of battles ahead. He’s not necessarily focusing on the one you are focusing on right now. And that’s his choice, not yours.

Do you struggle with lying and also lust?‌ Is he calling you to focus on your lying, but you are focusing on your lust? He’s not saying it’s “ok” to lose the battles against lust. He’s just smarter and wiser than we are and he knows what’s best for you. If he’s focusing on the lying right now, there’s a really really good reason for that and you should listen to him and follow that lead. He’ll get to the lust stuff soon enough, don’t worry!

To be clear. No it’s not “ok” to just throw in the towel with your struggles because: “God is focusing on this other struggle right now.”. That’s not how God works. He’s not “ok” with sin, he is “ok” with us being human and going through our struggles and battles one by one. You cannot win 1000 wars in the same day.‌ But you can put work into 1 battle or struggle today and work on the others after you win this one war.

Try this. Follow his lead. Focus on what he’s focusing on, not what you think he should be focusing on. Just trust him and follow him. He’ll help you get to the place you need to be, where he wants you.

It’s in His time, not yours… because you can’t do it alone can you? It’s gonna be in His time then, not yours.