-Grace upon grace-

The desire to please God is not a bad thing, better yet it is a great thing when our heart is in the right place. But it is also important to ask ourselves why we want to please him. Is it because we believe we owe him that? Or is it out of the true desire to please him because we love him?

If it’s the first, then we are still stuck in that mindset of having to earn the grace of God because we don’t deserve it. But if that was the case, then grace wouldn’t be a gift. Grace is given to us freely!

God knows that we cannot earn it, and that is why He sent His son to purchase it for us. I have always believed that pleasing God was a good thing, but I had not thought of the reason why I was trying to please God. So now, I have to ask myself, am I trying to please Him because I desire His perfect plan? Or am I doing it because deep down I still don’t feel worthy of His grace, so I keep trying to prove myself to Him by doing everything I can to please Him and earn His love?

This can be a hard topic for some of us, especially those who live their lives trying to please others. Growing up, that was me, all I wanted was to please my family and make them happy. I felt so loved that I wanted nothing more than for my family to be happy. I felt like when receiving something I had to give something back in order to deserve the gift that was given. But that is not what a gift is. A gift is given to us without expecting anything in return.

God has taught me so much in this area and He has helped me understand the gift of grace.

I have learned to set boundaries for myself because people-pleasing can have a negative effect on our lives. The truth is, we will never make everyone in our lives happy, and if we live with the mindset that we can, we will go through life feeling worn out, worthless, and emotionally drained. If you are trying to please people, I advise you to ask yourself what is the motive behind it. Are you doing it out of pure love or out of the desire to make yourself worthy of being loved?

There is absolutely nothing on earth we can do to earn the love of God or His grace. He sent His son to die for us, knowing that we would never be perfect. Jesus knew we would continue to mess up and sin against Him, yet He still went through all the pain and hurt for us, for me and you! Isn’t that just incredible? I know at times thinking about this can make us feel less worthy to be loved by God. It can be tricky not to fall back into that mindset. But we must accept the fact that we will never be good enough, and we cannot earn His love with all of our efforts. His grace is a gift He longs for us to receive.

If you think about it, if we are still in the mindset that we have to earn God's love, then we still have not come to understand that God is so powerful that He can cover all of our sins with His grace and love! Therefore, there is no need to try and earn it. The desire to please Him should come after we accept His grace and love towards us. Then that desire to please God comes from a heart that loves Him and wants His will to be done.

He offers us grace upon grace!

"For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

John 1:16