Lay Your Burdens Down (Part 1)

Ever feel like you can’t do anything right?†I groaned to my friend. I had just dropped by Susanne’s house to chat. Earlier that day, I had gone shopping for a birthday present for my sister. I chose a full-length mirror to hang on her bedroom door—the perfect gift for my fashion-conscious little sister. A slim wooden frame surrounded the mirror, giving it a decorative quality.

But after purchasing it, I’d left the mirror in my car for the remainder of the day. On my way to visit Susanne, I noticed something different about the mirror. In the heat of August in Mississippi, the glue holding the frame to the mirror had melted, and the frame had become completely detached. I just knew I had ruined the present. Susanne sympathized with my feeling of failure. She too sometimes felt defeated and unable to do anything right. I would guess we all experience that from time to time.

But there’s good news. As Christians, we can know that we are loved, accepted, and forgiven even when we don’t “get it right.†In fact, nothing we do (or fail to do) can separate us from God’s love because Jesus—God in flesh—laid down His life for us and rose from the dead. Once we put our trust in Jesus, we get to be in relationship with our heavenly Father, not because of anything we’ve done, but because Jesus has made us right with God!

Yet, what we do does matter. Our actions, our choices…they aren’t meaningless. In fact, the Bible calls us God’s “handiwork” and teaches us that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). While nothing we do in this life will be perfect, as God’s children, we have the privilege of partnering with Him in sharing and showing the love of Jesus. Through the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to “do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do†(Ephesians 2:10). And even when we mess up, He gives us grace. When we sin, His forgiveness is still sure. And when we make mistakes (like leaving a mirror in the car), He doesn’t shame us.

It turned out I didn’t ruin the present after all. That mirror held a spot on my sister’s bedroom door for many years. She extended grace for a less-than-perfect present. And our Father extends grace for our less-than-perfect lives. • Allison Wilson Lee

• Can you think of a time someone showed you grace after you messed up—either by making a mistake (which is not a sin) or by doing something wrong (which is a sin)?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)

Read Verses:

Heb.12.1-Heb.12.3