Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.
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"Grace is the key to generosity. Grace, by definition, is when we receive something totally undeserved. Generous people are generous because they have a grace about them that makes it possible to give freely."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 129.
Have you ever considered what in your life you totally don't deserve? That list of mine is getting longer and longer.
At first, just about all I could think of was my salvation is a gift that is totally undeserved. By the way, that is a truly undeserved gift. We have done nothing that merits God taking such drastic steps to save us. Other things in my life I kind of feel some element of deserving. That's what I would like to focus on today.
I kind of feel like I deserve most of what has happened in my life. My house, my cars, my family, my status in the community, my abilities to do what I do, all these and more have a lot to do with the efforts I have put in to get to where I am today. Unlike salvation, the physical things of life are items that we can claim we have had a hand at making happen. This gives us the opportunity to discount grace in ways that, I believe, really limit the effectiveness of generosity. Let's dive into this thought a bit.
It is when I think that I deserve the life I have helped to make for myself that I turn my back on God's grace. Sure, I realize that God has played a role in everything I have done. But, I have had to play a roll in all the physical blessings I currently enjoy. The fact that we are such a results based species makes it that much easier to take credit for the goodness of our lives, especially when we have worked so hard to help make that goodness happen.
Maybe that is why victim thinking is so easily achieved when things just don't go the way we want. Could it be that failure in what we do makes us think that we are not worthy of the grace God gives? When we think that there is something wrong with us due to the failed attempts at making the good life we want happen, victim thinking can't help but be the result.
I think it really all goes back to grace. We defined grace as receiving something that we didn't deserve. It is as we see a good portion of our lives as something we deserve that we set ourselves up for victim thinking. Let's use an example from the list I gave earlier with regards to what I feel I deserve in my life due to the hard work I have put in.
Consider my house. No one could argue with the fact that it has taken a lot of hard work for my family to live in the house we currently own. Housing in California isn't all that affordable. The house we currently live in valued at a level that would be considered obscene in most of the rest of the United States. God didn't just give us this house. It took a lot of money and a bunch of blood sweat and tears to make this house the amazing home it is today.
If grace is getting something you don't deserve, then by all accounts, my house is completely deserved. Just the amount of work alone we have put into this place makes it abundantly obvious how deserving we are to be in this house. Add in to that fact all the money we have spent on the purchase and renovation of this property, no one could ever object with how deserving we are.
Now, I'm completely open to allowing victim thinking to take over in my life. It is when I feel deserving that challenges in life, particularly challenges against the object of what I feel I deserve, makes me feel like a victim. It isn't too difficult to realize how negative my thinking would be were something to happen to this home that I feel so deserving of.
At the very least, thinking I am deserving of my home might make it so that I am less generous with what I have. Why would I open my home to others in ways that my precious possession, that I feel I so deserve, might be harmed in one way or another? It is when I find myself in a position of not needing or seeing God's grace that generosity takes on a different role in my life.
That's why my list of what I deserve in this life is getting shorter and shorter. I'm starting to realize how much of God's hand has been involved in all that I have. Even all the things that I have worked to amass in my life has had God's hand on it. I use to think this kind of perspective was way too spiritual in nature. My thinking has changed quite a bit. Let me tell you why I believe God's hand has been in more than I really want to let on in my life.
You see, I live 50 miles from the Mexico border. Had I been born in Tijuana, what would my life look like today. Odds are I wouldn't be in the type of home I currently enjoy. There is a very good chance my automobile situation would look significantly different than it does today. All the things that I truly have worked hard to obtain in my life would probably not been possible having been born just 50 miles from where I sit delivering this presentation.
From that standpoint, God's grace has played a big role in all that I have worked to have in my life. Maybe it is all up to God's grace that any of it is mine at all. I certainly didn't do anything to deserve being born in the US. And, yet all my "blessings" have come as a direct result of the amazing opportunities we have in this incredible country of ours. That's why my list of what I deserve is getting shorter all the time. There aren't too many things left that I can't see God's hand in making happen, no matter how much effort I had to put into getting those things.
When I look at all I have through that light, I see the power of grace in my life more fully. When I see that power, I have the chance to let generosity be all it is suppose to be in my world. Generosity takes on a power when grace is the foundation from giving what we have to those that might not have been as fortunate as us.
Today's reading is a verse that I have never liked. I have always heard it quoted at funerals and it has never set right with me. In the light of today's presentation, I think I get what it means a little more now. Check out today's reading with me now.
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God’s name be ever blessed. Job 1:21 (MSG)
God has given me a lot. If nothing more, the very fact I was born in the US and was given the opportunity to make happen the many blessings in my life this place has afforded, grace of His giving is so evident to me now. The fact is that God takes away as well. Not to punish. Not to get us moving. He takes away for reasons that, I am starting to believe, is filled with grace as well. I don't understand that one quite as well, but my God is a god of grace. I will praise Him when He gives and will find a way to praise Him when He takes away.
All I know is that victim thinking hinges so completely on grace. If we don't get how fully dependent we are on God's grace, we will never be able to live the victor's life we want. Living in that place where we feel deserving is such a victim laced strategy. The losses we will face in this world work to make victim thinking a real possibility when what we have worked so hard to achieve is threatened.
Don't give Satan the ammunition to make victim thinking a real part of your life. Bad things are going to come against those things you have worked so hard to achieve. Take another look at the list of things you feel you deserve and think about God's grace. Victor comes alive as we shed responsibility for making life be what we want it to be. Live in the place where you totally enjoy the benefits God has been a part of making happen in your life. Bask in the glory of all the hard work God allowed you to do to get to where you are today. But, don't allow grace to go missing in your life. Let grace be the foundation from which your life is built. Building on any other foundation is a guaranteed way of letting victimization contribute more to your identity than God ever intended for you, His Child.
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