Guilt and Carelessness in the Face of a Too-Small God

This morning I was meditating on Psalm 32, particularly verse 5, which says:

Suddenly the pressure was gone-
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.

I think God made this passage stick-out to me because I have a hard time letting go of things I have done. When it comes to my own life, I choose guilt over grace.

When I was done praying, I got to thinking about God's grace and how our reactions to it effect our lives. For those of us who let guilt run our lives, we are too quick to forgive and forget, believing we are the chief sinners and nobody has messed-up as bad as us, the unforgivable. We believe in God's grace for everybody except ourselves. At the same time there are those who accept grace too quickly, relying on grace at the expense of any sort of life change in which sin is eradicated from their lives. These people are often too slow to forgive, never really realizing how huge their own forgiveness really is in the scheme of things.

I believe both of these extremes come from a belief in a too-small god. We believe in a god who is either too weak to forgive every sin, or is too meek to be taken seriously. God is the definition of love and of strength. He can be kind and angry. We have to be able to hold both sides together in our hearts and minds if we are to begin coming to terms with our huge God. He is our gracious, intimidating, mysterious LORD. That is why YHWH is so awe-inspiring.

I for one no longer wish to worship a small god.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Postmodern Youth Ministy by Tony Jones and The Radical Bible, which was adapted by John Eagleson and Philip Scharper.