Get the appGlimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in your HomeSample
Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
“It’s the same dishes, bills, and diapers every day. Nothing changes,” we groan. It’s tempting to view everyday life merely as a monotonous cycle of making the beds only to lie in them again. Even the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes lamented the monotony of the mundane. When we fail to see God’s activity in the world and understand the significance of our being created in his image, we’re functionally hopeless.
And so it is with the decisions we make every day in regard to our growth in holiness. When our perspective of this life is near-sighted, we come to believe that what is front of us is all there is. We resist doing the awkward things that entail walking in love. We languish in perseverance in difficult friendships. We even justify our decisions, missing every day opportunities to delight in God.
But when we realize that we are indeed surrounded by the circumstances that God has ordained for our sanctification, we can have hope. God’s grace to us in Christ gives us assurance to follow him where he leads, even when it’s into awkwardness, hard work, and pain. God’s triumphant grace in the work of Christ on the cross assures us, leading us into the mundane, awkward, or painful full of faith and joy.
In the gospel alone we find the hope we need when our depth perception is skewed and we forget eternity. When our hope is in God’s glory, for ourselves and others, then our life in the home is anything but dull, diminutive, and disappointing.
“It’s the same dishes, bills, and diapers every day. Nothing changes,” we groan. It’s tempting to view everyday life merely as a monotonous cycle of making the beds only to lie in them again. Even the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes lamented the monotony of the mundane. When we fail to see God’s activity in the world and understand the significance of our being created in his image, we’re functionally hopeless.
And so it is with the decisions we make every day in regard to our growth in holiness. When our perspective of this life is near-sighted, we come to believe that what is front of us is all there is. We resist doing the awkward things that entail walking in love. We languish in perseverance in difficult friendships. We even justify our decisions, missing every day opportunities to delight in God.
But when we realize that we are indeed surrounded by the circumstances that God has ordained for our sanctification, we can have hope. God’s grace to us in Christ gives us assurance to follow him where he leads, even when it’s into awkwardness, hard work, and pain. God’s triumphant grace in the work of Christ on the cross assures us, leading us into the mundane, awkward, or painful full of faith and joy.
In the gospel alone we find the hope we need when our depth perception is skewed and we forget eternity. When our hope is in God’s glory, for ourselves and others, then our life in the home is anything but dull, diminutive, and disappointing.
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About this Plan
Sometimes life feels a lot like a burden—day in and day out it’s the same chores and tasks, anxieties and responsibilities. So where is God in all of this? Does he care about the way we unload the dishwasher or balance the budget? Do the little things like changing diapers make a difference? We all need encouragement to see the reality of God’s grace in all of life.
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We would like to thank Gloria Furman, author of Glimpses of Grace, for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: www.crossway.org/books/glimpses-of-grace-tpb/
