Barbie Loflin

Do you ever have times when you just can’t figure out for the life of you what it was that God thought He was getting when He chose you?Do you ever wonder if He regrets His choice?I probably shouldn’t admit to such thoughts, but I can’t help but wonder if there are others out there, who, like me, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they got the good end of the deal in this exchange with God.Today’s society scorns such a deal as the typical, “If it sounds too good to be true…”

Ah, but it is that good and it is most definitely true.

Maybe that is why we struggle so hard with the idea that we can do absolutely nothing to make things come out even.We push and push, and perform and perform, attempting to be good enough to receive what He has already freely given to us.It is so ‘human’ to think we will ever be good enough to earn this gift of God.

I am awed by the simplicity of salvation.It is so elementary it confounds the wise men of this world, just as God said it would.Free gift, without price, lavishly bestowed upon you and I.He gives all, we give nothing.

Yes, our lives should be changed; our actions altered in conformance to His perfect will, but never as an attempt to ‘earn it’.We are changed because of His love for us, and readily conform because of our love for Him.Our deeds are not payment; they are in service to the one we love, just because we love.We reach out because He asks it of us, not because we must in order to be saved.

I have been saved from this life of death.You have been saved from this life of death.All He wants is to help us live in the fullness of this wondrous eternal life He has gifted us with.

What a wonderful, wonderful, Savior.

Yes…

You can still get something for nothing…

Nothing To Offer

I have nothing, Lord, to offer You.

My hands are empty.

Anything I might ever attain would be as nothing before You.

I try and try to be good,

To reach the point of miserably less than perfect,

Only to find that I am miles away from even that poor measure.

I have nothing, Lord, to offer You.

I wonder at times if You did not look closely enough…

before choosing me.

Yes, Father, I know nothing eludes You,

Still, at the risk of belligerence, may I please ask why me?

Did You see something in me that I have yet to see?

I have nothing, Lord, to offer You.

My faith weakens when provoked,

My hands fail to perform the most menial of tasks when prompted.

I see all of the wondrous works You do through others,

What have I to give My Master in return for this good fortune?

How can I repay what I do not understand?

Father, I am bowed by the awesome grace I have received.

I have nothing, Lord, to offer You.

This, then, I suppose, must be what I offer…

Nothing…

Nothing of the old me that wallowed in pride and pity,

Nothing of the shell that purposed to find her own way in this world,

Nothing of the shadow I used to be.

Nothing of the faithless, angry creation I was before you found me.

Oh Lord, I have nothing to offer You,

Please receive my nothing and make it something in Your hands.