I am frustrated. I am frustrated at God. I have been banging on my computer keyboard for well over an hour, but I have no reflection to show for it. My day was fine until this point. I started with church, had a nice visit with my sister at my neighborhood pool, went for ice cream with my daughter and even talked with my mom. So I was certain in all this ease that the reflection would be easy to write.
I don’t know why I think God owes me a reflection. He owes me nothing. I owe Him. I owe Him more respect than throwing a hissy fit because the reflection isn’t finished when I want it to be. I owe Him my admiration for putting up with me when I am in this foul mood. I owe Him my gratitude for sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. I owe Him my thanks for letting Christ bear on the cross my burden of sin and death. I owe Him my life, because His Son secured my salvation and redemption with His blood. I owe Him all that, but I can’t pay Him. Instead, He sent Jesus to pay my debt, so I could be reconciled to God through Christ.
Tonight, while I was being a jerk about this reflection, He was loving me, forgiving me and administering His grace to me through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Photo by Yingchih Hao
Denise Larson Cooper has a passion for Christ and sharing His Word. A wife and mother of two daughters, Denise currently works as a gymnastic coach.
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Dear Denise,
I have been, and often am, there (daily) as well sister, but I recently heard about “offering it (suffering) up” like we are supposed to do daily with our sins. So not only have I been working on putting my sins upon my cross and following Him to Calvary everyday so they can die within me, and He can resurrect me anew without them, now I just learned that I need to do the same with my sufferings. There is a great talk, and Scripture reflection, about this from Dr. Scott Hahn called “Making Sense our of Suffering” which is worth listening to and praying about.
God love you, Andrew