Don’t you love how God can take the messed up, broken, ugly pieces of our life and make something beautiful?
My husband and I were talking about this the other day, specifically in regards to sin. Those times when we royally mess up, when we do what WE want and just assume God will go along with it. When our plans usurp God’s plans. I want to say that it never ends well, but honestly?
It’s one of the amazing things about God. That God can bring good even out of the bad places in our life, even when we mess up. You need only to look at a child born out of wedlock or out of a rape situation to see this beauty. Or at many people in the Bible… a murderer (Moses… David…) a prostitute (Rahab…) or a man bent on destroying the church (Saul… turned Paul….) just to name a few.
I’m always super careful though, because too many times, it’s easy to use God’s beautiful silver linings as justification for the sin that played a part in leading us there. I saw a conversation the other day on Facebook where someone tried to say, “Eh, who cares that they are sleeping together and not married? God’s grace covers a multitude of sins so it’s cool. We all sin, so who cares? God loves us anyway.”
*blink*
I won’t put on my preachers hat and preach about the many things that are wrong with that statement, but it broke my heart.
Yet, there is another side the coin. The side where we tend to stand with our pitchforks and jab anyone who struggles with sin. We forget that we, too, were broken people saved by the grace of God. We feel we can take the place of God, that we know the inner workings of hearts, and we condemn them with our words and actions, instead of helping to point them to the true giver of life and grace who is the healer, who loves them, who wants to cleanse us of our sin.
I don’t claim to be perfect. I struggle with this balance between using grace as an excuse and striving to live a holy life, set apart for Jesus. Daily I feel pulled in both directions, but am called by God to get on knees and strive to serve Him, regardless.
I talk about this today, because it’s one of the big theme’s of my upcoming novel releasing in November, The Engagement Plot. It is a fun book, filled with some sarcasm and laughter, but there is a lot of serious too.
Hanna is a woman who always thought of herself as a Christian. She strives to live a holy life, but when a few iffy decisions lands her into a big fat lie, God starts feeling further and further away.
And then you have William, who had a vibrant faith as a child, but due to circumstances in his teen years, he’s grown cold and callous, and lives unashamedly for himself and his own pleasures.
And then you have a mostly unseen host of characters who, instead of getting on their knees and joining in the battle through prayer for the hearts of these two very broken people, pick up stones and hurl them with all their might–all in the name of Jesus.
It was such a journey to write their story, to see their growth and struggles, and I’m so excited to share it with you this fall and so thankful for Barbour Publishing/Shiloh Run Press for taking a chance on publishing this book!
(If you’re of a mind, it’s available for preorder now in paperback for only $7.49!)
Let’s chat!
Do you struggle with the balance like I do? I know this is a pretty deep, theological discussion for a romance blog! But I think it’s an important one!!
Save
Save
Krista Phillips writes inspirational romance with a dash of smiles. She believes a sprinkle of laughter (and a wee bit of chocolate) makes everything a little better! She blogs regularly about life as a wife, mother, follower of Jesus, and mother of a child with a rare congenital heart defect at www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of WordServe Literary.
Hi Krista, how very apt for me today! Not only do I struggle daily with this- my pride, my sense of self trying to dominate God who I want to shine through in my life, but today I had to deal with a student caught doing something totally wrong. Unfortunately, this student has made some choices that have led to a serious addiction. How easy it would be to say “you messed up, leave!” but God always extends grace…and we are looking at how we can counsel and work with this student, who, fortunately, is willing to address the issue. Your post could not have come at a better time…isn’t God awesome!
Blessings:)
I agree with Wemble, Krista…the timing of your post is perfect. Thank you.
Thanks Krista! As stated by Wemble and Jill a very timely post. What an excellent analogy – jabbing at somebody who is struggling with sin with a pitchfork. WOW! But so very true. Most of my life I have struggled with striving to live a holy life, set apart for Jesus. To show grace and love others.
I absolutely struggle between grace and being judgy. At times when I am torn I remind myself to use the gospel with gentleness, pray and let God do the rest.
Thank you for this lovely reminder today.
While I don’t think jabbing people with pitchforks because of their sin is a good plan, I do think it’s important that, when you know someone is sinning, and you have a relationship with them, you address it with them. Yes, do it with reminders of God’s grace, but it feels like, here in the US at least, we’d rather turn a blind eye and not call since what it is because we’ve accepted the lie that this is loving and tolerant.
And I’ll get off my soapbox now before I get going :) and just remind us of Paul’s words in Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
I also struggle with my own sin and pointing out the “plank” in someone else’s eye. God calls me on that every time!
This made me tear up!! Yes, God IS awesome!!! I prayed specifically for your student in my prayer time today and will continue to keep them in my prayers!!! *hugs*
God’s timing is always spot on :-)
It’s such a balance as a believer in Jesus, to not “accept” sin as okay or normal, but also not inflict more damage with our judgement. I’m SO thankful for the holy spirit who is the ultimate guide in those situations!
Absolutely. I believe if we are where WE need to be with Jesus and are daily praying and walking with Jesus and in the Word, the Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak and let us know when to speak and when to be quiet and pray! Because the Holy Spirit is the one who does the convicting (or, at least the QUALITY convicting :-) :-))
Your welcome!! Thanks for stopping by!!
Totally agree!! I definitely think there are times God calls us to speak up and be bold, and we have glossed over the need for repentance in recent years. I just think the church has done it WRONG in a lot of ways in the past, which has caused a new movement of “Don’t worry about your sin, cause God loves you anyway” which is just as wrong as pitchfork stabbing. But I also think it is REALLY easy to get on a judgemental pedestal and point fingers at others who are sinning “worse” than us to make ourselves feel better, instead of out of a genuine heart of love and caring for the other person.
I’ve been reading through the book of Acts lately, and over and over it talks about the Holy Spirit speaking through the believers, and so that is my prayer. That when God does call me to speak truth about a sin to a fellow believer, that it would be the Holy Spirit speaking through me, and it would be out of love and no other impure motivation. Because my “self” tends to flub stuff up most of the time!!
You and me both, friend. You and me both!! To Elizabeth’s point, once the plank is out of our eye, Scripture DOES say that we can lovingly help our friend remove their plank. But sometimes I think we tend to just point and be like ‘Dude, you have a plank in your eye. You’re a terrible person.” and walk away with them in even more pain than before.
Hi Krista
This is an area God is reminding me daily. The balance is hard. I am a child of His and it is only by His grace that I am. Yet, I’m not to just use that grace as a permission (or fire insurance) to do my own thing. I need to be an example to others and sometimes being an example is extending grace to them. However, I agree with Elizabeth’s point, we need to come alongside them and lovingly share with them God’s desire for their life.
Thank you, Krista. How the pendulum swings in our society, and we along with it…
Wonderful post, thanks so much Krista! It’s a tricky balance, but the good thing is, God is always there with us in the middle of it all. I can look back on mistakes I made, and see how God used them. But that’s not an excuse to keep making mistakes!
His gift of grace and forgiveness is a wonderful blessing, and one Jesus reminds us to extend to the mistakes of others. But it’s not an excuse to live sinful lives., and it’s an even bigger mistake when people use it that way to justify sin.
But not a new problem. Wasn’t that what Paul wrote about to the Corinthians?
Yup, yup! Exactly what he was talking about!!!
The pendulum in making me dizzy lately, watching it swing back and forth…. :-)
I think we all struggle. To deny it is almost like lying.
I’m looking forward to the Engagement Plot. Thanks for sharing.
Yup!! I feel God daily calling me beyond it all. That it is when I focus on the case-by-case details that I forget who is in charge of the details. That if I’m living my life sold out for Jesus, if I’m focusing on worshiping and serving Him, the balance becomes more automatic because it is God breathed rather than through Krista’s sloppy imperfect efforts.
Very thought-provoking post, Krista. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes, Krista your post is so well timed……for all of us and in many different ways. Thanks!
I grew up in a very strict environment and also one where we were encouraged to talk to someone in sin. Like everything, there are two extremes. So have had to learn grace. To me everything was black and white so why couldn’t my husband see that or my kids? My husband has a very different viewpoint so over the years has helped me to be more balanced and show more grace to others and to myself as I was very hard on myself also. So glad that my family have been merciful and above all else that God is merciful and full of Grace which he daily shows us through his Word and others.
Krista, thanks for your challenging post. Priscila wrote what I was thinking – we’re in denial if we think we don’t struggle in this area.