The Front Door

By Sarah Bryant, with Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 6/26/19

My head hung down as I sat there wondering if this was finally the time that God had had enough of forgiving me. Surely there must be a limit. I had been saved in my mid 20’s and was told that meant God had saved my soul forever, but that has been a hard concept for me to grasp for the majority of my Christian life. I would hear people talk of the boundless grace of God, but quietly questioned if that could really be extended to me. I still fight the tension at times today. I know I’m saved, but how can it be? When my time comes and my life is laid bare before God, how could He ever welcome me into His forever home? In all honesty, I would often imagine that day would look something like me slipping in the back door of heaven while God was busy talking to someone else in the living room. Almost like I would get in on a loophole even though He wasn’t really thrilled about it. He wouldn’t really even notice me come in, and I’d slip off to my room. But, slowly (very slowly at times) as I grow with Him I realize how far from the truth of God that image is. As the song goes, “I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory.” And it never mentions having to slip in the back door. In fact, the more I get to know God the more I believe that He can’t wait to greet me at the front door. His arms wide open, waiting to give me the biggest hug I could ever imagine. Maybe He’ll even tell me, “Well done.” That He knows this life has its struggles, but His love and grace is far more than all of that. Yes, He’ll see my life laid bare, but still He’ll fling that front door wide open for me to follow confidently in behind His Son. Not because of what I have done, but because of what Jesus did for me. It’s not about how hard I work to “clean up” my life or check a certain number of spiritual boxes. God loves me, because God loves me. It’s mind-bogglingly simple!
If you’re struggling today to accept the love and grace that God promises those who have put their faith in His Son, you’re not alone. But know that as a believer in Christ that God’s love and grace for you are true even when you can’t comprehend or feel it. God wants to not only meet you at the front door of heaven, but He wants to meet you right where you are today. Because of what Jesus did for us, we can approach Him with confidence. We don’t have to climb in through a window or slip in the back door. We have front door privileges to the grandest mansion ever built – God’s house!

“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:13-16

Father, thank You for Your amazing love and grace. Thank You that we can confidently approach You with every aspect of our lives, knowing that You care for us more than we could ever imagine. You want to meet us right where we are, and we look forward to the day when You will meet us at the front door in glory. Amen

 Click HERE to listen to "Victory In Jesus" by The Band Steele

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha...
Read more

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the ...
Read more

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more