So we all hear this amazing gospel message about how Jesus is our Savior and took the punishment for all of our sin so that we can be fully forgiven and live eternally with God. We hear these amazing stories and we know them in our core, but living in this world can make us quickly forget Jesus’s amazing gift.
Here is how the day usually goes for me. I wake up and read God’s Word and I feel refreshed and ready to face the day. I feel close to God and thankful for the gift he gave me. I go from feeling refreshed to drained when the kids wake up and often it is a struggle to get out the door or we have a rough drop off at daycare.
There are imperfections going to work because often I will forget something or feel rushed. A day this week I was called to one of my children’s classroom because they were having a hard time and I had to go comfort them. When our children are feeling sad, it is often hard to think of anything else. Later when I saw that child they had all but forgotten about it but this mother was still worrying.
Throughout the workday there are things to deal with and often I make mistakes within my job because I am not a perfect human being and those mistakes need to be cleaned up.
When I get home sometimes the supper hour goes awry and I feel guilt because the meal was not to the kids’s liking or not nutritious enough. There is supper to clean up and lots of things to do before the kids go to bed.
I think in everyday there are thoughts that come and threaten to steal my joy. The thoughts come to distract me from the Gospel that God wants me to live out in my daily life.
Then I think about God and his power and his sovereignty. I think that these imperfections in my life aren’t there because he feels like picking on me, but because sin has entered the world. I long for the perfection that God intended, but I can use the imperfections to lean into Him. He wants me to acknowledge that I am not God, nor do I want to be. Talk about a burdensome job, I can’t imagine all that God has to deal with!
My biggest problems in life come when I think that I can do God’s job better than he can. I usually don’t think I am trying to do God’s job, but when I try to take control of my life that is exactly what I am doing. I am non-verbally telling God that I don’t think he can do it and that I am more qualified to handle the situation. How arrogant of me. These are times that I need to repent of my prideful sins.
There is my answer right there: to remember the Gospel throughout my day, I need to acknowledge that I am not God throughout the day. I am God’s servant and I am called to follow His will for my life. After that thought enters my mind I can take a huge exhale and I feel so much peace. So when my children are fighting with each other I can faithfully discipline them and pray that God will be sovereign in the situation. I can know that God is handling everything and I don’t need to be afraid.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
The next time I feel burdened by the daily grind I need to remember to stop everything in my mind and remember that God is in control. Thankfully I don’t have to deal with the world’s problems because I have a Perfect Creator who is already doing that.