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Today’s devotional is specifically for screwed up people. If you are less than perfect, if you arrive at the end of your day and it didn’t go as you imagined and it’s mostly your fault, if you are a good starter and a bad finisher, a big talker – little doer, or somewhere in between, this is for you. If you’re living in a house with screwed up people, work with screwed up people, or share a highway with screwed up people, this devotional is for you.
Romans 3: 23-24 NIV For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
I sin, regularly. I fall short, every day. However, I am blessed through my faith in Jesus, I have grace. GRACE IS THE UNDESERVED FAVOR OF GOD. Maybe you deserve God’s favor more than I do, but I’m going to be honest and tell you I’m banking on that undeserved favor which comes through grace because I have a very unique and special way of screwing things up.  I can be so totally OCD, so obsessed with things that I drive those around me crazy. When Joyce and I have conversations about mechanical things I get so lost in all the details of the mechanics of what I am trying to tell her that she literally zones out. Her face glazes over. And for all of this and more I have GRACE. Grace that keeps my beautiful bride Joyce from inflicting harm on me. For all of our screw-ups, shortcomings and totally random quirky ticks, we have grace too. God’s undeserved favor covers us. Ohhh, don’t you pretend like you’re not screwed up in some way. I know you’re screwed up too!
God has been offering you GRACE your entire life – have you accepted it? Or are you still trying to beat yourself into submission, trying to contort yourself into something you’re not, relentlessly seeking more, becoming a better you, becoming new and improved. How’s that working for you? You’re exhausted aren’t you? Why not just surrender to God’s grace and let him cover all that for you?
Every weekend I try to accomplish things around the house. Each weekday and I discover things I need to do. I write them down on a to-do list. It is a simple way for me to make sure I succeed, to make sure I complete what needs to be done. It is way for me to make sure I simply don't forget to do what should do. As I complete each task I draw a line through it. This works real well for me until life throws me a curve ball and I get nothing done that I planned to get done.
When life throws me a curve ball. There is an unfinished task on my list. The list then grows longer, because my to-do list never stops growing. Eventually I start ignoring the list all together because it has become overwhelming. What once helped me is now just an ugly reminder of how I screwed up again. The same thing happens outside of my weekend to-do list. When I don’t do what I know I need to do in my Christian life, I start avoiding it. If I avoid studying my Sunday School lesson one week, then it is easier the next time to avoid it again. If I fail to go to Wednesday evening bible study one week, then it is easier to skip it again next week. I think you understand where I am going here. When you are stumbling or failing in your faith does it get better? No – of course not. It gets worse. Facing our own screw ups is hard. Admitting we have failed is painful.
So what do we do? We receive and we offer GRACE!!! It is not God's plan for us to beat ourselves up. It is not God's plan for us to fail to be screwed up people. First you must know you can't earn God's Grace. God's grace is freely given to us. Good plans and good works are simply not enough and never will be. Here is God's 3 step plan of Grace. Step1. Receive God's Grace. Step 2.

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