For more reasons than one, I struggle with believing that some things are too good to be true. Or the idea that once I am happy and lower my guard, the rug will be pulled from under my feet. As some would say, I am constantly waiting on the other shoe to drop. As you can imagine, some of the truths found in scripture take a renewal of the mind for me to believe—especially truths about my worth and value, as well as God’s love and grace toward me.  Counseling is helping with this. However, I am still in the process of progress. 

It is much easier for me to believe the bad than the good. For example, grace. Grace is God’s free and unmerited favor for sinful humanity. So often, we throw the word grace around without fully understanding or appreciating the depth of what this means. All throughout scripture, God is practically begging his people to turn from their wicked ways and be obedient to Him, not for his sake but our own, so that we do not experience the harm due us in the form of consequences.

The Message version of Jeremiah 8:4-7 says, ““Tell them this, God’s Message: “‘Do people fall down and not get up? Or take the wrong road and then just keep going? So why does this people go backward, and just keep on going—backward! They stubbornly hold on to their illusions, refuse to change direction. I listened carefully but heard not so much as a whisper. No one expressed one word of regret. Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear. They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly banging their heads against a brick wall. Cranes know when it’s time to move south for winter. And robins, warblers, and bluebirds know when it’s time to come back again. But my people? My people know nothing, not the first thing of God and his rule.”

As I read this, I thought why do we not get up when we fall or turn around. And then I thought of the many times guilt and shame has kept me from moving forward or making any move. The times I would not ask God to forgive my sin because I couldn’t forgive myself. I couldn’t accept his grace, so instead I lost perspective of who God is and his will for my life. I didn’t accept his free gift of grace. 

Are there indicators that you have fallen down or heading in the wrong way? What are you doing to get back on the right path? Ask God to help you accept his Grace? Repent, turn around.