Ungrace

I am reading at little book by Philip Yancey entitled “ What ‘s so amazing about grace?” The version of the book I am reading is the visual book. It is mostly pictures and some excerpts from the written book with the same title. In this book it talks a lot about grace and it really opens your eyes. I have been thinking about it a good bit since i started thumbing through the book last night. It may have just started a new blogging series on Grace. I was talking with Tara last night and this morning and my mind was racing as i was telling her about one of the stories in the book. It was a story about generational ungrace, but that is for another blog. I would like to address in this blog our excuses. The excuses we cling to in order to stop God from changing our lives. I have used many if not all of these excuses myself, so i feel somewhat qualified to blog on the subject. We always have excuses for why we do things. We have a reason and a rhyme for every ill thought and ill advised adventure we find ourselves in. Let me give you a few. Well I know i cant be perfect, I am only human, you don’t know you have never had anything like this happen to you. Well God knows I am going to mess up. At what point did we as followers of Christ and people in general give up in our strive to be better than we are. When did we give up in our search for excellence in what we do. Have we sunk so deep into our excuses culture that we no longer strive for the best we can be, because we have already accepted we will fall a little short. I know that it is possible however improbable to live a sinless life(post experiencing Christ's saving grace), why do i know this, because Christ lived a sinless life, AND Christ now dwells with in the hearts of all believers. No we can not eliminate our original sin, but when we find Christ or should i say when he finds us what stops us from living a sinless life? Could it truly be our inability to try? I know the likelihood of achieving this goal is small if not truly impossible, but if i never even attempt than that is by far a more tragic tale than the one of the man who tried to live a sinless life and failed. Jesus never had excuses for why he could not do something. He was not in the desert for 40 days and said well Satan God knows I am really hungry, so yeah i will make that stone into bread. Jesus experienced all we experience and more (he bore the weight of sin) and he never had excuses only righteous actions. Jesus had an amazing way of breaking through our excuses and making us see the futility of that defense. We are accountable for our actions and our lack of actions. God will not accept excuse when we are before Him. Neither should we accept them now in our lives. What excuses are you using to defend you unrighteous actions before God. Take the time and figure it out. Then ask the more important question. What would happen if i stopped making these excuses, strived to make the change, and when i failed apologized and worked even harder to better myself. Do not make an excuse and move on, accept ownership of the mistake and make the change. God does not demand perfection that is what Grace if for, so why not aim for perfect and fail. Instead of aiming or average and failing just the same.