A Humble Winner

I was just thinking this morning of the blessings I have received. But let me backup a little. One of the accusations the devil gives me, goes something like this. “I’ve never won. I'm always coming in second, or third place. It’s my lot in life.” There’s some truth to this accusation. As a young boy growing up, I was never on that baseball, or basketball team that went all the way to be “champions.” And though I had a 6 year career of playing professional baseball, I never made it to the big leagues. You get the picture…and when something doesn’t go like I expect it, or want it to, you can almost count on the tempter to be there every time doing his thing.

This morning I was just thinking of a few things that God has given to me. First, God has extended to me the forgiveness of my sin. Forgiveness…and because of that, I have been given eternal life. He has granted to me to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. Secondly, He’s allowed me to understand His Word, and to learn it. And, of course, there is no learning the Word without following the Word. He has granted to me to be a doer of the Word, the Bible. What did I do to deserve this? And God has given to me my wife, who also loves the Word. And she just happens to be my best friend. Then came the stewardship to raising two wonderful boys. Beyond the scope of my family, God gave to me a great desire to study and teach others what I know, to stimulate others to love and good deeds. What a privilege this is! I was thinking, “I don’t deserve all this.” Then God allowed me to join with other men, who together, are all called to shepherd, to oversee and teach a group of fellow believers. What a stewardship this is. What did I do to deserve all this? And, of course, the answer is, “nothing.” It has all come from God’s hand…freely. It’s called GRACE…unmerited, undeserved favor from God. But I found it interesting that I would even ask the question, “What did I do to deserve all this?” It’s ingrained in all of us to earn what we have. We must do something, work for it. And for most things God does command that we work. But, simply stated, God’s grace is not grace if we earn it. I am truly on the winning Team this time. But I must say, it wasn’t because of my ability, or my intelligence, or me being able to logically come to a conclusion about Jesus Christ and His salvation. Therefore, if a person is required to do anything to be saved, then it’s no longer grace, but earned. And if we are taught that salvation, forgiveness of sins, is received by the work of “choice,” it’s somewhere between infringing on the purity of God's grace, to eliminating "by grace alone." I am who I am because of God’s work, not mine. I don’t understand why He chose me, but I do understand that He did. I’m very grateful. I love Him…only because He first loved me.


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