Yet God...

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. (Romans 3:23-24 NLT)

We might not want to admit it, but we are sinners through and through. We were born with the sin nature - it is part of who we are. We give into it almost unconsciously at times, don't we? We listen to its lies and believe whatever 'feels best' at the moment, all the while ignoring the warning flags deep within our spirit that are telling us to act otherwise. Everyone has sinned, is a sinner, falling short of God's standards for living - in need of a 'life altering change' that can only come by saying yes to Jesus.

God's grace comes to us without us even asking for it - offered to us in ways we might not even realize as God reaching out to us. Grace comes in the form of protection from serious harm when we choose to do dumb stuff. It comes to us in that avoidance of a huge crash on the highway, narrowly avoiding the outcome that could have turned deadly. It also comes in the form of a tiny child, arms outstretched, showing us that love isn't hard when we open ourselves to receive it.

God has standards - we won't ever meet them until we welcome Jesus into our lives. He has a purpose for our lives - we will always fall short of our full purpose until we say yes to grace. He desires a closeness with us we cannot experience apart from allowing his grace to wash over us, cleansing us of our sins, and placing his Son's nature within us. When we say yes to Jesus, we are saying yes to life change. Some may not want to hear that because they have become very comfortable with life the way it was 'before Christ', but it is impossible to 'stay the same' when his presence lives within us.

We aren't perfect and we won't reach that point here on this earth. We can live transformed lives, though. We can make better choices. We can adopt God's standards and live within the safety of them. The choice to serve Jesus isn't hard, but we might just find the life change he requires hard because we have become so comfortable with 'the way things are'. We like being in control. We like giving into some of those lusts and desires on occasion. We like what we shouldn't and resist what we should embrace.

If we want to see lasting life change, we have to let go of the 'comfortable way things were'. We have to be willing to embrace what may seem a little uncomfortable at first, knowing that God would never ask us to do something that wasn't for our benefit or blessing. Trusting God to know what we need, when we need it, in the way we need to receive it - that's hard when we refuse to release control of our lives. The sooner we commit to his standards - his leadership of our lives - his grace begins it transformative work. Just sayin!