The difference between religion and faith is huge. They might look a lot alike at first but they could not be much more different. People who practice religion try to become good on their own. And people who practice faith know they can’t become good on their own. Hence they surrender to Jesus daily and by doing so let the Holy Spirit work in them. And that’s all God needs. He needs an opportunity to enter our lives. Then he will take care of making us more Christ-like.

With the words of Lilias Trotter “We have not to produce out of our higher nature a lowliness and a patience and a purity of our own, but simply to let the pure, patient, lowly life of Jesus have its way in us by yieldingness to it and by faith in its indwelling might. ‘All that God wants from man is opportunity.’ The whole of our relationship to His power, whether for sanctification or for service, is summed up in those words.”

God Wants an Opportunity

All that God wants from us is an opportunity. God only wants to shower us with his grace. And with his grace, we will receive and experience everything we need. We just need to give God the opportunity to show us who he is and what he is all about. I think we can do that, don’t you think?

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. (2 Tim. 1:9, NIV)

Christian living is not about practicing religious rituals but giving God an opportunity to love us. Daily. Faith is a vehicle of how we can experience God intimately. For that God only needs an opportunity. Let’s give it to him. Daily.

Gracious God,
Thank you for providing everything both for our salvation and sanctification.
Help us to remember it’s not about us repeating religious rituals and trying to make ourselves acceptable to you.
Thank you that faith is instead about giving you an opportunity to embrace us with your grace.
Please, do so. Over and over and over again.
We need you.
Come and change us however you want.
We praise you forevermore.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Do you let God move freely in your life? Why/why not?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace God for all he is.

Photo by Kai Oberhäuser on Unsplash.