Today's Devotional
February 28, 2008
Subject: No Guilt, No Grace
1 Peter 5:5b "for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble"
I even feel guilty writing this because there are simply times that I feel like God is often too partial in my favor. Yesterday my lawyer/wife reminded me that I had a court date for a speeding ticket that I received in December of last year. It was only a couple of months before that that I received another speeding ticket and when we tried to pay it, the court kept telling us that the ticket was never turned in and not to worry about it. They finally gave us a date for it to be dismissed and it was gone. So this time, as I told my wife before going to court, "I'm ready to pay for a ticket because I never seem to have to pay for them."
I arrived at the court house in one of my semi-dress uniforms because it was inspection day at school. When I arrived the bailiff working the metal detector was quite polite and said "sir what do you have there?" As I glanced into the court room, packed with people, I told the bailiff that I was there for a traffic ticket that I needed to resolve. My lawyer/wife had already told me to plead guilty and to ask for defensive driving so I was ready. The bailiff then told me to step to the side. He asked me to follow him a short ways down a hallway and then I heard him in another room talk to someone about a "soldier being in the hallway." The next gentleman then stepped into the hallway and said, "that's not a soldier, that's a Marine oohrah!" I then responded "oohra" realizing that the gentleman had to be a Marine also. Of course you know the rest of the story and once again I was free of a speeding ticket.
My wife was surprised when I returned from the court so early and when she asked what happened, I was almost ashamed to tell her, because we had talked before about how my tickets seem to disappear and how she seems to have to pay hers. As we talked about it, we realized that we have two different viewpoints when accused of breaking the law. Because I realize that I most often break the speed limit, my attitude whenever I'm stopped is to simply acknowledge my guilt and if I could, I would pay the officer on the spot. I know that I am guilty. My wife however is always wondering why they stopped her instead of someone else and her real beef is that they should be dealing with "hard crime" instead of messing with her. As we talked about it I said God simply gives me grace because I know that I'm guilty.
There's a great message in that and we can come to see that where there is "no guilt, there is no grace." Do you realize how guilty we all are on so many counts? If you do then God is standing by with the grace that covers it all. However if you think you're righteous, you'll pay for that. Grace is for the guilty.
Carlen
