Letters - by Niki Melton

2 Cor 6:1-2
Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” For he says:
​At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.
See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

Have you ever gotten a gift that you just didn’t feel like you could accept? Perhaps the giver was someone who you knew would hold the “good gift” over your head and remind you or expect something from you in the future. Sometimes you get a gift valued much higher than your offering to them. Or worse, they gave you something nice, and you didn’t get them anything… couldn’t afford to, completely forgot about them, or frankly don’t like them and thought they felt the same about you. Think of God’s gift of salvation… some of those same thoughts might apply, and sometimes they leave us insecure or unwilling to fully accept our new standing with him.

The Bible talks a lot about God’s grace, and the action of receiving it. It is stressed that we are a “new creation”, that the “old has passed away” - we are now “children of God”, and on our way to receive his “full inheritance” as such.

When Luke 18:17 (or Matt. 18:3) talks about the kingdom of God, Jesus tells us about becoming “like a child” …
“I assure you: Whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

So, what does that mean? Well, today, for me, it means this: If I am to put on my “robe of righteousness” and accept/claim my inheritance that Jesus died to pay for, I am going to have to take off my “filthy rags” and decide they are no longer mine. Literally, Hester Prynne style, throw down my Scarlet Letter (or letters, the devil loves to shame us), and no matter how much I feel like the Robe is undeserved sometimes, never pick up my old garment and put them on again. You see, we can’t wear both. Think of how stupid we look, trying to pin our old letters on top of Christ’s robe, as we go out as ambassadors for him.
My current problem? I can’t seem to let go of those letters. And there are lots of people (and some family) that really don’t appreciate me dropping them and keep trying to hand them back to me. But my epiphany this morning, came in the form of a movie line that really represented what the above verses were talking about. Now it’s been a minute since I’ve seen it, so I am slightly paraphrasing, but still.

​How come you never told me you lost Ben? - Stepmom
​You know why. - Ben’s Mother
​Well, Ben didn’t say anything. – Stepmom
​He doesn’t remember getting lost, he just remembers that I found him. – Ben’s Mother

Today, find you freedom from those letters. You have been found, and that’s what really matters.