Pay is Not a Gift

Is it payday yet?  We all like it when our check comes in and we receive our payment for the work we have done.  You may love your job and the work that you do, but you still want to get paid!  You still want to receive your just reward for the time and energy you put into your work.  But this concept of getting paid for work sometimes messes with our concept of God and grace.  We have a hard time wrapping our heads around the concept that we can't earn grace and love from God.  

Romans 4:4-5  A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. 5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

It is hard for us to accept that God gives us grace freely if we just believe and have faith.  It makes so much more since to us to earn God's grace.  If I can just be good enough and clean up my bad habits, then I maybe I will be good enough for God to forgive my sins and accept me as his child.  But when we approach God in this manner we find we are never good enough and we can't clean our lives up enough.  

Only when we surrender to the reality that what God is offering can't be earned can we accept is as the gift that it is!  After I receive it as a gift I long to show my gratitude to God by living His way and not my way.  I long to honor God with my life and not just honor myself.  I realize that following God's way is the best possible life for me!  I long to discipline my life to put myself in a place to keep this relationship with God because His grace and love are amazing!