Not by Works

Someone asked me the other day, “How tall are you?” Truth be told, I have always wanted to be 6 feet tall. My family of origin is vertically challenged, and to my knowledge, not a single one of us has cracked that 6-foot milestone. So, like it or not, stated or not, I am 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and that’s what I said in answer to the question.

The question got me thinking…

We love to measure ourselves. We compare our good days to our bad days. We compare the moments we got life right to ALL the moments when we got it wrong. We compare ourselves to others and always seem to come up short.

But salvation isn’t based on a scale.

Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:5, NIV).

Mercy means I don’t get what I deserve. Grace means I get what I don’t deserve. Both are at work in salvation.

Good works matter—but they are an OUTCOME of salvation, not the cause. We don’t work for salvation; we work because we have been saved.

When I remember that, it changes my motivation. I serve not to earn God’s love, but because I already have it.

Today’s miracle is that life is not about what we have done for God, but about ALL that God has done for us.

Let’s pray together. God, thank You that I don’t have to earn Your love. Let my good works flow from gratitude, not guilt. Shape my heart so that everything I do reflects the mercy You’ve shown me. Amen.

You are a miracle!