The topic of my devotional reading yesterday was about remembering God’s grace in my life and being humbled in the midst of that thought.
Sometimes I revolt at such words, thinking they are close to self-debasement, but this devotional does not read like that to me today. I know I owe everything to God. I think of his blessings upon me with the wonderful marriage I have and now the blessing of this child and I am overwhelmed with a sense of God’s goodness.
Recently, I was thinking that when we get ourselves in trouble with God is when we think we deserve things. But none of us deserve anything. God doesn’t owe us anything!
God doesn’t guarantee any couple a child. There are the Bible greats who suffered the pain and the social stigma of the day of being childless. We don’t deserve anything. We aren’t guaranteed anything. We should not take anything for granted!
We should not take relationships for granted. We should not take our relationship with God for granted. But so many times we do. That’s what leads to an inattentiveness to the relationship – no time in the Word or in prayer, not going to church, not serving others.
Sometimes we don’t serve others because we think we are the ones who deserve to be served. Maybe we don’t go to church because we expect God to be there when we need him.
Too often, we expect God to act as our God even if we don’t act like we are his people. God is faithful, but there are responsibilities that come with being his people. We get out of the relationship what we put into it, to a certain degree. But, because of God’s grace, we always get more, much more, than we deserve!