“…I will not treat you as you deserve…” (Job 42:8 NLT).
I can smell the coffee brewing.
I can feel the keys of the computer on my fingers.
I can see the fog beginning to lift from the fields.
I can hear the sound of birds calling to each other.
I can taste the mint of the toothpaste I just used.
Already this morning God has been merciful to me.
“…I will not treat you as you deserve…”
I don’t deserve to enter into His presence. I’ve done nothing that would warrant His acceptance. I’ve said nothing that would allow me special treatment from the King of Kings. I’m a no one in the grand scheme of things, a misfit really. He shouldn’t love me.
“…I will not treat you as you deserve…”
I cannot pay Him back for His goodness. I’ll never be able to thank Him enough for His blessings. I am incapable of serving in a way that glorifies Him as He deserves. I’m as far from perfect today as I was the day He met me at an altar in a small country church. He didn’t have to forgive me.
“…I will not treat you as you deserve…”
Lightning doesn’t strike with every bad thought my mind concocts. Judgment is not doled out on a scale for all to see when I sin. The only chains that bind me are the ones I still allow. He does not carry around a clipboard and a red marking pencil awaiting my next foul-up. He doesn’t have to allow me a purpose in His great plan.
He does not treat me as I deserve. And for that, I offer praise and thanksgiving.
Malinda Edgell
Illinois
PRAY TOGETHER: Ask God to bless Joanna Felts as she leads California’s WAC.
