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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Friday, July 25, 2003 "Not in the Way" |
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Frontline Devotion for Friday, July 25, 2003 by Pastor Justin Lathrop
Texts: Romans 3:21-28, Galatians 4:3-7
“So you don’t sin at all?” That was the response yesterday of a young man when I told him I was a pastor. It’s interesting to me that so many feel that to be a pastor, or a Christian for that matter, you must be perfect. I hear again and again that our inclusion in the church is contingent upon our behavior. That we’re somehow exempt from the love of God if we make a mistake.
Martin Luther believed the same in the beginning of his ministry. As a young monk, Luther read this Romans passage again and again. It terrified him. Over and over, the word “righteous” stuck in his mind. Luther believed the only way to be righteous was to be perfect in all our actions. But try as he might, he couldn’t be perfect. Finally, one night he was at his wits end. He gave up and threw himself at the mercy of God. It was then that he read this passage again and saw the message as it was intended. It is God’s grace that saves us. It is God’s righteousness that claims us as his own, and inheritors of the kingdom. And this was the start of the Reformation.
So often I felt like Luther in those early days. How about you? Do you ever feel like you just can’t be good enough – good enough parent, or worker, or Christian. I certainly have. And try as we might, we’ll never be perfect by our own hand. But that’s the good news. God loves us through all our imperfections. God claims us as God’s own despite our failures and shortcomings. We enter into the kingdom of righteousness and forgiveness not by our own doing, but God’s.
Today let’s live in that realization. We can do nothing great on our own. We can’t be a good parent on our own. We can’t be a good worker on our own. We can’t be a good Christian on our own. All we can do is give up. We can let God work through us. Let God’s love shine, and not get in the way.
Let us pray, Gracious and loving God, alone we are nothing, but together with you we are everything. We give you thanks for loving us, despite our shortcomings. Help us to let you work through us. Help us to see you in our neighbors, that like you we may love them through failures. Always have your light shine through us; through your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
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