Grace More Precious than Works / Mrs Misty Beutow

Mrs Misty Beutow

Pastor's Wife

Grace Baptist Church

Tremont, IL

 

Grace More Precious than Works 

 

6:00 Hit the snooze 

6:45 Realize you hit snooze too many times 

6:46 COFFEE 

6:52 The short one wakes up crying, needs changed 

7:17 Start pouring the cereal 

7:19 Clean up spilled cereal 

7:25 COFFEE 

7:47 The tall one has nothing to wear today, meltdown begins 

8:08 Explosions happen…The short one needs changed  

8:37 COFFEE 

8:42 The creative  middle  is painting her best piece of art work…on the living room wall 

9:27 Pull into church parking lot and you see her…. 

There she is. You know. Mrs. Gotitalltogether.  Getting out of her shiny new SUV. There she is with her children in matching plaid outfits. The sweet little girls with their big hair bows. The little guy with his handsome bow tie and matching socks. And those shoes. Look at her shoes!  Arm and arm she walks into the church with her loving and attentive man. You feel defeated as you slump down into the seat of your mini van that reads “WASH ME” on the back window.  You don’t want her to see you pulling dried cheerios off your goodwill cardigan. I bet she doesn’t even wear goodwill sweaters. She probably shops at Saks.  She looks so happy. How does she do it? How does she always have it all together? You finally get up the energy to muddle into the church. The short one crying, the creative middle dancing in the parking lot, and the tall one, oh the precious tall one…she feels awkward and insecure. When did she grow up so fast? She is hesitant to go to youth group this morning.  And you, you walk through the doors feeling like a failure. You are tired. You are weary. And you are frustrated. Why? Why am I always frustrated?  Why am I the only one that feels defeated?  

Have you been there? Can you relate to feelings of inadequacy? Or the constant comparison? How is it that we can barely make it into the church building alive and others look like they just jumped out of a Target ad? Can I let you in on a little secret? They struggle too. Mrs Saks that has the seemingly perfect husband and beautiful smile? She wears that smile to cover the hurt she is feeling because her husband didn’t get home until 2 am. And he wasn’t at work. The lady over there with the perfect children? She doesn’t want you to know that the oldest was sneaking around this week  Her heart is aching for them to know God  again. See the tiny little lady across the room with perfect body? You think shes vain and doesn’t eat enough. Wrong. She has health problems you have no idea about. The truth is, she is in pain every day. It’s a struggle for her to get up in the morning. And that couple over there. Always so happy.  It’s obviously they’re so in love. It’s because they don’t have kids. Kids can get in the way of a relationship. Wrong again. They have been through a very long painful and emotional road trying to have a sweet little baby. They just got news that the adoption they so longed for fell through. They are beginning to lose hope. The older lady that is always teaching a class or helping others? You long to be like her someday. Always calm. Always peaceful. Her kids are grown and serving the Lord. She has arrived. She has it all figured out. Nope, sorry.  She is struggling too. She lost her job and has no retirement. She is unsure of how she is going to afford her grandkids favorite snack when they come for a visit. She is carrying a huge financial burden. And her husband’s health is getting worse. She’s worried. She’s afraid. She too feels defeated. 

So why, then? Why am I the only one that is defeated? Why am I such failure? Well, you’re not. You just feel that way. Often times we let our feelings take over. Instead of recognizing that our feelings are indicating there is a problem, we let them dictate how we live our life.  And because we FEEL like a failure, we begin to live like a failure. So where do all of these feelings come from? I believe it comes from comparison. We pull into the church parking lot and compare ourselves to Mrs. Gotitalltogether.   We walk into Sunday School and sit next to Mrs. Dress in Saks clothing, and think how nice it must be while she has a credit card bill in her purse she is hiding from her husband.   We pick up the short one at the nursery from Mrs. No Kids, and think how nice it is that she gets to go home to a house with no children to care for and pick up for; while she is trying not to cry from the emptiness she feels as she hands over the short one to you. We spend so much of our time looking at all the Pinspired family pictures. All the great moments our friends are posting on facebook and Instagram. We look at those picture perfect moments, not realizing that it took 27 different shots trying to get that hot dog dinner to look like a gourmet meal! We sit there and compare our spilled milk and Mt. Everest laundry pile to someone else’s perfect moment. And that’s all it was. A moment. A split second of time that they captured and posted for all to see.  A moment that will get 247 “likes” and reassure them that they are NOT a loser. And then  there is you. Trying to just push through the toy pile on the living room floor. You haven’t washed your hair in 3 days. The dishes are piled high. We are so busy comparing our insides, the moments no one sees, to everyone else’s outsides,  the moments that everyone sees. Comparison kills contentment. 2 Corinthians  10:12 tells us that comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise. So what’s the answer? How do I get out of this foolish comparison trap I am in? One word,  grace. 

 

Grace. Such a beautiful word. What does it really mean? Grace is God's unmerited favor.  Grace is God doing good for us when we do not deserve it.  We all know the verse that says “By grace are ye saved through faith”. We have memorized it. We have shared it. It is the foundation of our faith in Christ. We have accepted God’s grace for salvation and trusted God’s grace for our eternity. But  what about daily grace? Does that even exist? Should we just trust God for salvation and then try to earn our favor with Him? I don’t believe that is how God intended it to be. You see, we are all about grace for salvation. And we know that we don’t earn it. It’s something that God in His loving kindness has chosen to give to us. Did you know that you don’t have earn God’s love? There is nothing more and nothing less that you can do for God to love you any more or any less? I’ll admit, that’s a hard concept to grasp for some people. We are taught over and over again to do more. Do better. Be better. A better Christian, a better wife, a better mom. A better house keeper. A better cook.  And should we do those things? Yes! Absolutely! We should never get to the point where we feel that we have finally arrived. That we are now the epitome of the Proverbs 31 woman. We should strive to do our best for Christ. But I think as Christian women we have missed it. We have missed God’s grace on a daily basis.  

Did you know that when God created you that He gave you hormones? Why? I have no idea! But He did! And He knows that you are going to fail Him. He created you! Matthew 9:12- 13 tells us “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  If we were perfect beings we would not need God. He is our great and perfect Physician.  It is the sick and the sinners that He wants to bring to Himself. Christianity is not a self improvement plan. We cannot just make ourselves better. We must come to Christ for strength and healing. 

 One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Our whole purpose is to bring God glory. To love God and to love others to Him. What a better way to show the love of Christ than to let Him work through our failures. Our failures, our weaknesses, our defeats and our trials can be used to bring others to Christ! So my dear friend, my sweet sister, please stop the comparison trap. Please embrace the grace that God has tenderly and lovingly given to you. Please stop trying to be better in your own strength. Relinquish that control, that messy house, those dirty dishes. Give those to the Lord. Let Him be your strength.  

 I will leave you with these beautiful promises from Hosea 6 “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn us, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord; his going for this prepared as the morning; and he shall come to u sas the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”  It’s hard. I know. But it’s harder to do it your own way. Grace is more precious than works.