October #jammed: Free Grace.

Day 291: What others see.

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.” Hebrews 10:38

When I close my blinds at night, it is so people won’t look into my house. Nowhere in my mind do I ever imagine someone creeping up close enough to peer through the cracks anyway, but that’s exactly what a neighborhood in our small town endured. Though they’d take all the right precautions to protect themselves, evil still slipped through the cracks. It’s disturbing, and creepy. It’s an unwanted reminder of the fallen world we live in …falling even further.

Today’s verse challenges our faith and our perseverance. Many will lose a little faith in the aftermath of a creeper caught peeping and recording it all as some sort of twisted keepsake. How can God let these things happen? It makes it hard to have faith.

Hebrews 10:38 cautions us not to let the sin of others chip away at our faith. The unfortunate hardship of Christianity is that we all still suffer from a world cursed with sin. There’s nothing fair about it, but neither is the forgiveness we are all extended. Jesus died on a cross, after doing nothing wrong. It was injustice on it’s best day. But it didn’t win, and neither will any injustice we endure on this earth.

When our faith is shaken by disturbing realities that befall us off the pages of fiction and Hollywood screens, hang on to the truth and know that the One who fights for us is Justice. He is the very definition of love, compassion and mercy, because that’s who He is. He is good, all of the time, whether we understand it or not. We must choose to trust Him in the gap of our lack.

That’s perseverance in faith. Believing when it’s hard, when it doesn’t make sense, when we are wronged, and when those who were wrong go unpunished. Persevere.

Father, Praise You for perseverance. Thank You for helpings to endure what do not understand. Forgive us for falling away because we can’t figure out why. Bless our hearts to soften to Your Word and Your Way, by following Jesus home. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace! 

#greatgrace17

Happy Perservering,

Megs

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