Devotion for Wednesday in Holy Week, April 8
Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God.”
Yesterday in our devotion I wrote about being “saved.”
I got a lovely and thoughtful email from a woman who wrote: “I have always struggled with the concept of ‘saving.’ I’m a little embarrassed to admit, while I am a life-long Christian, I’ve never been able to come to an understanding of that concept for myself.”
What an honest and wonderful question this is.
I responded to her: “You understand that it is also a question I ask myself
I suppose what I mean by 'saving,' is that somehow, I can’t entirely be reliant on love which I have to generate myself. Love must come to me from outside. Love which comes to me from outside and which is not based on anything I do or look like or perform...
That is the extremely powerful love which is saving love. For me.
But I’m not crazy enough to think that there are no consequences in life, that there is no such thing as judgment. It’s just that I can’t bear the judgment on myself —- and, so I feel this gratitude for Christ, taking the heavy weight off my shoulders. Because I can’t bear it.
And loving me now—in the present moment. He saved me.”
And for you? In this Wednesday in our sequestered Holy Week… Do you know how much God loves you?
PRAYER
Dear Lord, let me know, let me feel, let me hear,
let me experience the great love you have for me,
just exactly as I am.
