Welcome back! If you are just joining us, we are using the YouVersion Bible App to follow a devotional together. Read THIS POST to get all the information you need to join in and then you can read THIS MORNING’S POST to see the promises we are focusing on this week.  

Did you get a chance to spend some time with this week’s promises? I read them over and over and had such a hard time deciding which one stood out to me the most. Each one is so fantastic but the promise I am claiming this week is….

Forever with Me is FREE to those whose Lord is Jesus Christ. 

How many things in life are actually free? Not too many. Oh sure I can smile at someone for free and I can walk outside and soak up some free sunshine but anything truly life giving and sustaining such as food, water, shelter… it all costs something.

Even relationships can sometimes feel like they aren’t free. If someone does a kind gesture towards us, perhaps bringing us a meal or passing down some clothes to us, how often do we feel as thought we need to repay them, even if they insist it’s free. We keep tallies in our head of all the times we have gone out of our way for someone else and see if they reciprocate. We try anything to make up for a mistake we made even if the person we caused problems for has accepted our apology and insisted all is well. 

Our mind ledgers are a constant battle of who owes us and what we owe others. We debate with our brain over when all is balanced even though I’m pretty sure that it would be impossible to ever actually make it so. Doesn’t stop us from trying. 

God doesn’t keep a ledger and there is nothing we can do to pay Him back for eternal life. He offers it as a FREE gift, ours for the taking. The Lord of the Universe, the Creator of all things, loves us so deeply that He sacrificed the only son he would ever have so that we, all of us broken, blemished, and rebellious people, could live in eternity with Him – for FREE. I can’t say that enough. 

We can’t pray enough, say sorry enough, do enough good deeds, read the Bible enough or do anything enough to pay God back. He doesn’t want to be paid back! Do you know what He wants? Our hearts. It’s that simple. He desires us to be in a one-on-one relationship with Him. He wants to pour out blessing upon blessing over us as we seek to know Him better. 

I don’t know about you but I am so thankful for the free gift God has given. The thought of trying to earn my way to Heaven seems so daunting and heavy. As thought it would always be just out of reach because I missed the mark one too many times. I’m so thankful I don’t have to be “good enough” but instead I’m forgiven and washed clean by the blood of Jesus and have been given my all-inclusive pass to eternal life by accepting God’s gift. Amen? AMEN!

Heavenly Father, what can I say but thank you for this free gift. A gift that you didn’t have to give but that you chose to give out of love for your creation. I thank you that this is a promise, that ANYONE that accepts you into their heart has this gift. I pray, Lord, that we would wipe our slates clean, that we would stop keeping track of how much we owe and who owes us but we would try to be as generous as you with the gifts we have received. Thank you again for the gift of your Son. In Jesus name, Amen. 

What promise did you choose this week? Do you try to pay people back for things they do for you? Do you keep track of what you do for others? How can we be more generous without keeping a tally?

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