Unmerited grace.

 Day 32

Ruth 4:6

Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

God will reward you even when you don’t deserve it.

How many times have you faced a problem or gone through a trial and thought, I didn’t deserve this! And, how many times have you received a great blessing and thought the same? You graduated from college with excellent grades: I worked hard for four years, and this is my reward. You had an easy childbirth: I did everything well, I ate healthy, took care of my body, and this is the result. I raised my children in church: I am now reaping the rewards of my efforts.

It is not in our human nature to think that we don’t deserve the blessing. Only the tragedies. When faced with the man who was blind since birth in John 9, the disciples asked Jesus who had sinned. Maybe they thought that he somehow deserved his blindness because of some sin. Job’s friends insisted constantly that he had somehow sinned to find himself in that painful situation.

But when something good comes to our lives, we always tend to think that we deserve it because of our own effort. It is like, when our favorite team wins the championship, we say, “We won!”. But when they lose, we say, “They lost!”

Boaz wanted to redeem Ruth and Naomi. But “he didn’t deserve it”. There was one before him. It wasn’t his job. But he had to be willing to sacrifice his dream because that is what the law ordered. Maybe he had dreamed too soon. But when the man heard that with the benefit of the land he also received the responsibility of two widowed women, he was no longer interested. He turned it down, and Boaz received his reward for having done God’s will without ulterior motives. Come to think of it, he received a reward that he did not deserve, and he was conscious that it had been by grace, and not due to his own merit.

Oh that we can see in this passage the grace and mercy of God! No, we don’t deserve it. In and of themselves, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” before the holy presence of God (Isaiah 64:6). But God, in his mercy, did not consider our human nature and day after day gives us blessings after blessings; most of them, we don’t even notice. Go, #getittogethergirl. It doesn’t matter what you have done wrong or how much you have tried to do right. After all, whatever you have, God gave to you despite your opinion about yourself. You did not deserve it. You were poor, a commoner, a foreigner. But it pleased him to delight himself in you and reward you for your job, though you did not deserve it.

Father, I know that no matter what I do, even with my best intentions, it will never be enough to please the God of the universe, all holy, and almighty, but all merciful and abundant in grace. Thank you for the reward you have given me, which I know that I don’t deserve. Help me bring honor to your name in everything I do. Help me be worthy. Help me do your will, even if it means making some sacrifices as Boaz did. In the name of Jesus, amen.

My reflection:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you…so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

John 15:16