More Than We Deserve

“More Than We Deserve”

By Zach Wood

Romans 5:1-2 (NLT)

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

We spend a lot of time in our lives acting like we deserve things.  When we work hard at our jobs, we feel like we deserve a raise or some other promotion or recognition.  If we do something nice for a family member, many times we want to be shown thanks for that.  If we help out a friend, often we hope deep down inside that the person will do something in return. 

If we bend over backwards for someone else and do many things to help them out, we honestly do expect something in return.  We might not say it, but we honestly many times hope something will come back to us in return.  What human being has never felt these ways? 

So very often in our lives, we really feel strongly, for one reason or another, that we deserve something for what we have done, whether at work, at home or somewhere else.  When I think of my faith in Christ and how far He has brought me through the years, I’m often reminded that I don’t deserve anything.  He has given me so much more than I’ll ever deserve and only because He truly loves me.  I need reminded that I don’t deserve anything I have. 

Why do we so often think we deserve so much?  Think about what Christ did for us so that we could be righteous before God by the blood.  We have forgiveness from a Savior Who gave His life for us.  Look at the word “undeserved” in the above passage.  That’s a big word!  Everything we have in our lives is undeserved.  We deserve nothing, yet Christ gave us everything when He died for us. We have everything we need in life, yet so often we feel like we are so deprived. 

Are you thankful for the undeserved blessings in your life with Christ?  We definitely need to be thankful a whole lot more rather than spending so much time thinking about how we deserve more in life.  Christ gave us His all.  That’s all we need.