Wasting Riches
If freedom, grace, love, forgiveness, and eternal life are free for us to receive, why do we feel so broke?
It is one of the greatest tensions in the Christian life. Jesus paid for what we could never afford. Freedom is free. Grace is free. Love is free. Forgiveness is free. Eternal life is free. Yet somehow, so many of us are still living as if we are spiritually broke.
Not broke in the bank, but broke in the soul. Broke in peace, in joy, in confidence, in hope, and in identity. How can something so freely given still feel so far out of reach? Because even if something has been paid for, it does not mean it has been received.
That is the struggle. There are people who have access to freedom but still live bound — people who have been offered grace but still live ashamed. These people are deeply loved by God but still feel unwanted. They are people who have been forgiven but still punish themselves every day, and people who have eternal life promised to them, but are barely surviving the life they are living right now.
Why?
Because we know the truth in our heads, but we have not let it heal our hearts.
A gift can be sitting in front of you, fully paid for, beautifully wrapped, with your name written on it, and still never change your life if you refuse to open it. A lot of us are standing in the middle of God’s goodness, still acting like spiritual beggars. We come to church and sing about freedom, then go home chained to fear.
We talk about grace, then live under the pressure to earn what Jesus already bought. We thank God for His forgiveness, then replay our failures like they still define us. We say we trust His love, but panic the second life gets uncertain. We are not broke because God has not given enough, we are broke because we live like what He gave could not possibly be for us.
Some of us are broke because we still believe the lie that if it is free, it must not be valuable. That is how the world works. The world says the more something costs, the more it is worth. But the kingdom of God does not work like the world. What was free to you cost Jesus everything. Grace is free to receive, but it was not cheap. Forgiveness is free to receive, but it was not cheap. Freedom is free to receive, but it was not cheap. Eternal life is free to receive, but it was not cheap. The cross proves that.
So when we treat these gifts casually, ignore them, doubt them, or keep trying to earn them, we are not walking in humility, we are walking in unbelief. Let that sit for a minute. It sounds spiritual to say, “I know God forgives me, but I just can’t forgive myself,” but what we are really saying is, “His blood is enough for everyone else, just not enough for me.”
It sounds responsible to keep carrying shame, but shame never made anyone holy. It only keeps us hiding from the God who already came looking for us. It sounds safe to stay guarded, but love cannot heal what pride keeps covered. If God says you are forgiven, you are forgiven. If God says you are loved, you are loved. If God says you are free, you are free. If God says there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-3), then why are you still sentencing yourself?
Maybe the reason we are so broke is not because heaven is withholding, but because our hands are full of things God asked us to lay down.
You cannot receive grace while clinging to guilt. You cannot walk in freedom while holding your chains. You cannot live in truth while constantly agreeing with lies. You cannot enjoy the riches of Christ while rehearsing the poverty of your past.
At some point, faith has to stop admiring the gift and start accepting it. Not eventually; now.
Receive the grace. Receive the love. Receive the forgiveness. Receive the freedom. Receive the life Jesus died to give you. You do not honor God by staying broken over what He already healed. You honor Him by believing Him. The tragedy is not that the gift is unavailable. The tragedy is that so many people live like it is. So, stop standing outside the door of what Jesus opened with His own blood. Come in. You are not too far gone. You are not too dirty. You are not too damaged. You are not too late.
Don’t waste the riches God is handing you…