Nothing to Prove

Have you felt like you could do nothing right?  No matter how hard you tried to prove yourself to someone, no matter your sacrifice, effort, or success, it was never enough?  Many people carry the burden of trying to please their parents into their adulthood, feeling like they were never able to satisfy their parent's expectations.  An ache of bitterness and unworthiness remains in the heart with a deep unsatisfied longing for acceptance and love.  This is the tragic end of too many father/son relationships.

This is the emotional and relational baggage many carry into their relationship with God.  Perhaps this fuels the need to constantly "prove" ourselves to God so we may experience the love and acceptance we have always craved.  At church this morning, we read the story in Luke 17 of the ten lepers who were made well and the Samaritan who returned, praising and glorifying God.  The thanksgiving and humble thanks of the ex-leper were visible evidence of his faith in God.  Jesus sent him away in peace saying, "Your faith has saved you."

The Samaritan man who was healed did not have to "do" anything to "prove" himself to Jesus because Jesus already knew him.  We do not need to "prove" ourselves to God by anything that we do, for the Bible is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.  But how often do we point to external acts when it is faith that Christ seeks?  If we have faith, won't thanksgiving, praise, and God's glory be what we are about all the time?  We have only proven we are sinners, through and through.  It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy we have been saved.  What a relief that God's view of us is not dependent upon our works!

This goes back to the most fundamental basics:  God has made us.  He knows us.  He placed every strand of DNA in every cell in our bodies, aligned our chromosomes how He saw fit, knit every bone, tendon, muscle, and arranged every organ in its place.  He knows me and he knows you.  He does not have "unrealistic" expectations of us that we have not lived up to:  we are most precious to Him even in our fallen state.  A human born into sin will sin.  But God, who has chosen to have all His creation give Him glory, is pleased when a single sinner repents and turns to Him in faith.  God's thoughts toward us are good, not evil.  He is not the ever unsatisfied and aloof father whom we can never prove ourselves to.  We don't need to prove ourselves:  we must give ourselves.  And considering what we know of ourselves, we don't deserve that kind of acceptance, love, and grace.