Ephesians 1:3 NLT
'All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.'
It has taken me too many years to unravel what being united to Jesus is really all about. An enthusiast by nature, and always one who seeks to secure approval through service, I try too hard to please God when, in fact, all God wants from me is my love. There is nothing I can do to secure God’s approval; this was granted through Jesus’ journey of redemption. All that’s required of me is to say yes to God, just like the thief crucified alongside Jesus. My actions, which I determine are a demonstration of my love of God, are most often mere attempts to prove to myself that I love God.
My actions add nothing to the salvation story. Only in so far as I surrender to God completely and both acknowledge and enjoy God’s hard-won provision for me do I in fact reveal the truth about God within the spaces I occupy. I am no more than a container for God’s grace.
It is so hard not to try to do great things for God. They are all unnecessary. All I am invited to do is make myself available for God to dwell within, and God will do the rest. What a blessing!
Better by far to cease from struggles, with the conflicting anxieties and ego battles they engender, and rest in God, knowing that everything has been secured in Christ Jesus, and all is available to me just as I am.
QUESTION: How does it feel to realise there’s nothing you can do to add additional benefit to the work of God?
PRAYER: I am available to you, God, to live in and through, your grace made perfect in my weakness, warts and all.

Released on 11 May 2020