Jesus, Not Us

Whether the cause is OCD, or depression, or some other biological cause, or whether it's simply our own sin, we worry. We have trouble in our lives. We worry. We find it all too easy to see everything that could go wrong. We worry.

We forget that God is in control. And a good thing for us, too; we wouldn't do a very good job of running even our own lives, much less the universe.

But then, that's our biggest worry, isn't it? Our own inadequacy. Our own insufficiency. Our own failure. Our own weakness. Our own sin.

Hint: If you wonder whether you're good enough, or honest enough, or holy enough, or anything else enough, you aren't. You can't be. If that's your focus, you're living under the Law, and that leads only to sin and sorrow and failure and death. But in Christ. God offers us another way: turn our shortcomings, our worries, our sins, and our weaknesses over to Jesus. He will drown them in our baptism. Our old, sinful, worried self will be drowned there and buried, and our new self will rise with Him, clothed not in our own sufficiency, but in His.

We want to be in charge. We want to live our own lives. But we mess it up. Not sometimes. Not even usually. Always. All of us. All the time.

Macht nichts, as my grandmother used to say. Repent of your obsession with being good enough. You never will be this side of the grave. But Jesus is.

Repent of your desire to do it all yourself. You can't do any of it yourself. None of us can. But the good news is that Jesus has done it all, and gives it all to you. He takes your shortcomings, your worries, your sins, and your weaknesses, And in exchange, we receive His completeness, assurance, holiness, and sufficiency.

There's a word for getting out of the way and doing that. It's called "faith." Even that isn't something we can summon up on our own or manufacture through our own effort and striving. It's a gift He gives through His Spirit, who comes to us only in His Word- whether heard, read, poured, or eaten and drunk.

We get in the way when we try to do God's job for Him. And there's no need. In Christ, and in His Word and Sacraments, God does everything we cannot.

Let's pray: Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I ask this through Jesus, through Whom our sin-stained prayers are always heard as if they came from His own sinless lips. Amen.

Don't seek the way of striving and accomplishing. Seek the way of the cross. It's the only way to what you're looking for.

It's either about what you, or what He does. It can't be both. Hint: It's the second one!