When will my behavior catch up to my status in Christ? I am constantly feeling like I’ve missed the bus for school,  the school of eternal life where the Holy Spirit reminds me of all of Jesus’ teachings (John 14:26), because I’ve overslept. I long for my life to be a sweet aroma to God, that He would be pleased with my sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15). I long for the actions of life to be pleasing to God. But, then I’ll get sidetracked with selfish pursuits or lax into complacency. More and more, Paul’s words describe my life: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). My desire is that the actions of my life, my behavior, would reflect the reality of my blameless status in Christ. Is that asking too much?

I know that I need to give myself grace because I am still in process. But, my present reality frustrates me. My pride that refuses to accept where the Lord has me in the process of my sanctification has an even harder time accepting God’s grace. My pride wants to work out its own plan of blamelessness, rather than stand upon Christ’s work of redemption. But, then I read verses like: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4); “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8); and I am reminded that it’s not all up to me, that God is with me through it all and that He will carry me through into completion (Philippians 1:6). I often feel like my behavior has a long way to go before it matches my status of blamelessness. But, then again maybe that’s the best place to be because it humbles me to seek more of God’s grace. Soli Deo Gloria.