free

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Romans 5:6

This is not me – exactly. I mean it’s not me literally but it could be. I do have a few spots in my house that resemble this picture. And every time I walk into those spaces the guilt of the messiness rises up to greet me.

Oh it’s not a friendly greeting. It’s If only you would be more organized this would never happen or If you would have more energy you could tackle this and be done with it or You are never going to make it – the evidence is all around you.

And I close the door and plan to get to it tomorrow.

What guilt doesn’t know is that I run my household, I run my business, I run around helping my husband with all of his duties, and I run to keep in shape. I am constantly running and I’m very busy. But guilt doesn’t acknowledge all of the things that I do well. It just reminds me of the areas in my life where I’m not so good.

And some days I feel utterly helpless, unable to keep up with all the things that want a piece of me. I don’t keep up with friends like I should, days fly by and I haven’t spoken to my sisters, papers pile up that need to be filed, rooms need to be cleaned and I can’t seem to get to it all.

And I just want to stick my head in a closet and shut out the demands on me.

But then I’m reminded of God’s grace. His grace is sufficient for me. He is perfect so I don’t have to be. The verse above doesn’t say that Christ came while we were perfect. It says He came and died for us when we were sinners.

God doesn’t expect perfection. He simply wants us. And “us” includes all of our messiness.

While my rooms remind me of my imperfections, Jesus reminds me of my righteousness in Him. My messiness – our messiness – doesn’t matter to Jesus – it’s why He went to the cross. He died on the cross for all of us and our sins were nailed to that cross.

Jesus loves us perfectly. His love is abundant and covers all of our imperfections. We don’t need to be perfect because we have a perfect God.

One day I will get to the clutter, but until then I can walk by guilt free. I am doing my best for now and relying on God to take care of the rest.

So when you see me, overlook my messiness please – and I promise to do the same for you!