God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
I've been there a few times in my life. Most don't understand it. That's understandable. However, it hit home to me when the Apostle Paul said, 'Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches' (2 Cor. 11:28). A number of years ago, the pain was so intense that the physical affliction Paul spoke about earlier in 2 Corinthians 11 would have been much preferred. I can take the long hours and the hard work. I can even take the pressures on my family. But the emotional pain is the one and only thing that forever tempts me to throw in the towel. When I feel that way, I can almost hear the Lord saying to me, 'Are you in it for Me or are you in it for yourself?' That's gut-check time. Am I really a servant of Christ (2 Cor. 11:23)?
What moves God is not our supposed goodness or trophies of righteousness, but rather our desperation and cry to Him for grace. If we could earn it, grace would no longer be grace. Grace by its very definition is giving us what we do not deserve. If we were entitled to God’s favor, it would be a wage that we are due. But since we have merited nothing from God and God being God owes us nothing, we see His favor both in salvation and the blessings that follow all as a token of His undeserved grace to the praise of His glory.
