Leave It There

Leave it there. You must leave it there. When Satan cries out, “You should have done better,” don’t fall for the lie that you must improve your actions to be accepted. When the Deceiver calls out, “You don’t deserve the grace God is giving you,” don’t take his bait to try to prove him wrong. Don’t do it. Just leave it there. Because it’s true, and you know it. You should have done better, and you don’t deserve God’s grace. But that’s the whole point.

God gives you all that He is - His unconditional love, His sheltering peace, His abiding strength, His reassuring presence - all apart from your earning it. That’s the whole point of grace. You didn’t do good enough to earn it, and you don’t deserve to receive it, but God’s forgiveness and mercy, His goodness and acceptance is still yours, all through Christ Jesus your Lord, the Saviour of your soul. He gives everything that He is to you who have believed because He is a gracious God.

Where you have failed, Christ made a way. Where you have fallen apart, Christ made you whole. Where you have stumbled again and again, Christ has forgiven your past, present and future, and He lifts you up over and over. Where you are dead, Christ has given you life, His very Life. He has done it! He has made you righteous, holy, blameless, a child of His, loved and redeemed forever and ever. You are whole again. You are right again. You are His again. All by grace.

So you can leave it there.

You can leave Satan’s words with Satan. His attempts to bring you down with the very truth that glorifies God - salvation through grace alone - holds no power over you who are saved by grace. When Satan twists the truth to cause you to believe a lie, he does it to ruin you by drawing you away from Christ.

But he has no power over you when you leave it there, drawing closer to Christ instead.

And running into the arms of God. All through the blood of Jesus Christ that has washed you clean and made you whole again, apart from your doing. It’s where His grace has removed the power of sin’s hold on you. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you (Romans 5:8). That is salvation by grace alone, so you can never boast about deserving God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8-9).

And you can leave it there. Not deserving of God’s grace is exactly where you need to be, saved by grace alone, through faith alone.

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“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV