For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
- Ephesians 2:8-9
Three
hours—that’s how long it took Lindsey and I to pack on Saturday morning. Three
hours of rolling up shirts, picking out picture books for the drive, selecting
just the right stuffed animals, and making sure we grabbed all the necessary
chargers. Three hours of coordinating outfits, rearranging the suitcase, and
finally throwing everything in the trunk of our SUV. Three hours of packing,
not for a transatlantic flight or a cross-country road trip, but for a 5-day
stay in Waco.
And
here’s the remarkable thing: the entire drive there, I kept worrying we’d
forgotten something.
For
many people, life is just a bigger version of that packing experience—you work
and work, you think and plan, you do everything in your power to make sure
you’re ready for whatever comes next. And yet even when you’ve over-prepared,
even when you’ve said and done all the right things, you still feel like you’re
missing something. You still worry you’ve forgotten something.
What
makes the gospel such glorious news is that salvation isn’t the result of that
kind of effortful, harried life. Salvation comes not by human works, but by
grace through faith—it is not something you earn through hours of work and
preparation; rather, it is something God gives freely to everyone who places
their trust in Him.
In
so much of life, we are convinced that only maximum effort and maximum
achievement will get us what we want. Praise God that the greatest thing we
could ever desire—eternal life—is not earned, but given.
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