Messy House, Clean Heart: A 5(ish)-Day Reading Plan From Dana K. Whiteনমুনা

Day 1: Wrapped in a Blanket of Grace

Read Philippians 3:7-9 and John 14:6 and consider the following:

(Note: writing out your answers is a great way to process your thoughts.)

• Why does Paul call his gains/efforts “garbage”?
• Where does righteousness come from?
• Personal: Reflect on the areas in your life where you might be relying on your own efforts rather than grace to feel closer to God.

I enter dangerous territory if I ever think that my efforts can bring me closer to God instead of His grace alone. And if I try yet fail to keep my house out of Disaster Status, and I believe that failure is going to affect my relationship with God, that is equally dangerous territory. Either way, I’m focusing on the wrong thing.

Here’s what I do need to focus on: Jesus. The only way to get to God is through Jesus. Period. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).

Godliness that lets us have a relationship with God only comes one way: through Jesus’ sacrifice and our acceptance of His mercy and grace. Saying cleanliness is next to godliness isn’t just absent from the Bible; it’s also plain wrong. The concept implies we get closer to God by washing behind our ears or by doing the dishes.

Thinking this way is tempting. Scrubbing bathroom tiles feels easier than accepting and making sense of grace. It’s easier to put on a to-do list and cross off with the glide of your favorite gel pen. Cleaning a toilet is something you can control. If you can see the difference between a gray ring around the edge of your bathtub and the shiny sparkles after you’ve scrubbed it away, you know you’ve done what you set out to do. The results were within your control. Grace takes only a moment to accept, but a lifetime to understand and appreciate. Depending on grace means acknowledging there has never been anything I could do to achieve holiness apart from Jesus. My delusions of control must go.

Through grace, Jesus’ righteousness is placed on me. I think of grace as a blanket of Jesus’ holiness that covers all my sin, so when God looks at me, He doesn’t see that sin. Instead, He sees Jesus’ holiness. But even putting on righteousness isn’t something I do. Jesus places it on me simply because I place my faith in Him (Romans 3:22).

Scrubbing the bathtub matters. Just don’t think it matters in your relationship with Jesus.

Respond: How can you embrace the understanding that Jesus’ grace is already covering you, even amidst your imperfections and perceived failures?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the unmerited, unending gift of amazing grace. Put it on me afresh, I pray, and help me rest in that grace as I go about this day. Amen.