Do your Best

And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. Joel 2:32

Do you ever feel inadequate? Unworthy? Most of us do from time to time. And we all know people whom we think are too successful to have those same feelings.

Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century German preacher and Bible scholar who initiated the Protestant Reformation, sounds like the type of man who would be eminently sure of himself. Any man who would dare to publicly question the theology of his church - in a time when it could cost him his life - could not be a man who had doubts about himself. Or could he?

In truth, Luther spent his early years obsessed by his presumed unworthiness. He periodically fasted and mistreated his body in an attempt to "earn" God's favor. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he climbed the Steps of Pilate on his hands and knees, kissing each step. He wrote later that in those years he was constantly confessing his sins to God, yet he never felt he had done enough.

One day while reading the book of Romans, Luther realized he could not earn his salvation. The Bible says we receive salvation, we do not earn it. (Read Romans 4:13, 14.) Those verses of Scripture liberated Luther, radically changing his opinion that it was his works which made him worthy of God's grace.

He recognized Jesus Christ had already done all the "earning" necessary for his salvation. He simply needed to receive what Jesus had done - that He had paid the price for his sin on the cross - by faith.

On days when we fall flat on our faces in failure or just feel low, we need to remind ourselves that our mistakes are not the end of the world. Our inadequacy is not our doom. Our salvation doesn't depend on how well we manage to color inside the lines!

Perfection may be our aim, but when we realize we haven't arrived there, we need to relax and turn to the Lord, saying, "Forgive me for what I have done, and for what I have left undone. I trust You to be my Savior, my Deliverer, my Hope and my Perfection." He is and always will be!

I really hope you enjoy todays reading.