It’s typical of my generation of Dutch Calvinists to be very self-sufficient. We love helping with service projects, but we’re reluctant to take help ourselves. When asked how we’re doing, we always say, “Fine,” no matter how bad things are. We’ll get by; we don’t want to be a bother to anyone or have to take from someone.
That makes grace a tough concept for me. I like to handle things on my own. But do-it-yourself is a good approach to remodeling, but it’s a lousy spiritual plan.
The problem I have is that, while my construction errors are minor and I can stick to my financial plan, when it comes to faith I keep messing up. I can’t seem to get more than a couple of days right in a row. My works are spotty, my motives are seldom pure, and often I don’t do the most basic things I intend to do.
What good news, then, when I read Romans 10:16: “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
This is the part of my life that I have to let go of. Here is where my only hope is getting the help I need, from Jesus and from his people. By God’s mercy and Jesus’ sacrifice I am saved - I didn’t do a thing and can’t do a thing to affect that.
This doesn’t depend on me. In this, I am again the child looking solely to the Father for everything.
What a relief.
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