Tired of Trying?

The gap called frustration

We all have goals: graduate, land the job, find the relationship, look a certain way by a certain age. The gap between where you want to be and where you actually are is called frustration. But what if the thing you're chasing isn't what you most need? Your deepest need isn't better circumstances; it's to be right with God. He made you on purpose, for a purpose, and when you start becoming who He created you to be, you're no longer living for ego. You're living for Him.

The Bible's word for being right with God is righteousness. To many people it sounds stiff and self-righteous — robes, lemon water and a boring party. But righteous really means just right: everything as it should be, like Goldilocks' porridge. A righteous barbecue is a perfect barbecue. God is righteous. And because we're made in His image, we long for things to be right too.

No one is righteous — and that's where good news begins

The heart of Paul's letter to the Romans is Romans 1:16–17: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." Not by working extremely hard — by faith, one step at a time.

Paul builds his case like a lawyer. In chapter 1 he describes humanity: everyone knows God exists, but when people don't honor Him or give thanks, their thinking spirals downward. Readers nod along — those people are a mess. Then in chapter 2 he turns to the religious: you're worse, because you know better. By chapter 3 everyone is included: "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (3:23).

Oddly, that's encouraging. You're a piece of work, and so is everyone else. Nobody earns it. Then in chapter 4 Paul shows how anyone can become righteous, using the most respected example he could choose: Abraham.

Abraham believed God

Abraham is mentioned more than 300 times in Scripture and is the founding figure of Judaism and Christianity. Many in Paul's day saw him as a model of perfect obedience. But Paul writes, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3).

Remember who Abraham was. He came from Ur, in what is now Iraq, and his family served other gods (Joshua 24:2). He wasn't Jewish — there were no Jews yet, no law, no Moses, no Bible. Abraham wasn't looking for God; God came looking for him, just as He came for us while we were still sinners.

God told him, "Get thee out of thy country... unto a land that I will shew thee," and promised to make him a great nation and bless all the families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:1–3). "By faith Abraham, when he was called... obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8). Faith obeys before it understands. The best way to find God's will is to do the last thing He told you to do. Each step of obedience lights the next one.

God blesses us to be a blessing. If He's given you self-control, a strong marriage or a deep prayer life, it's so you can help someone else. That's why we gather as a church — not to compete, but to complete one another.

And Abraham wasn't perfect. He twice lied that his wife was his sister. He tried to fulfill God's promise his own way through Hagar. Yet Scripture says his faith did not waver. Faith isn't never fumbling; it's not letting go of God. If you've wrestled with God over a divorce, a lost job or a diagnosis, you're in good company. Without struggle there is no need for faith.

God walked the covenant alone

To believe is to let go and trust. Picture a hiker hanging from a root over a cliff, crying out for help, and hearing God say, "Let go, I'll catch you" — and answering, "Is there anyone else up there?" To be counted righteous is like being handed a check from a billionaire. You didn't earn it, but it isn't yours until you endorse it and cash it on the giver's name. You don't make your salvation. You sign your name to what Jesus has already done.

When Abraham asked how he could be sure of God's promise, God answered with an ancient covenant ceremony. Animals were cut in half and laid in two rows. Whoever walked between them was saying: if I break this covenant, may I be torn apart like these. Usually only the weaker party walked through. But Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and "a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp" passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17). God Himself walked the covenant — for His side and for Abraham's. In effect He said, if either of us breaks this, let the curse fall on Me.

And we did break it, over and over. Israel's history is a long record of failure; in the northern kingdom every king did evil, and only a handful in the south were faithful. The penalty was earned again and again. At the cross it fell on Jesus. "He was wounded for our transgressions... and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). He was cut off from the land of the living. He cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" so that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Paul adds David, who committed adultery and arranged a murder yet was forgiven, though he still lived with painful consequences. "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Romans 4:8). Your sin isn't counted against you, because it was counted against Him.

You don't have to measure up anymore

Abraham was declared righteous before he was circumcised and years before Isaac was born. He wasn't righteous because he was extraordinary but because he trusted an extraordinary God. And he was never the point: he was the road to the Messiah, the promised seed (Galatians 3:16). "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). Outsiders by birth become family in Christ.

"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). Not the perfect or the deserving — the ungodly. That's us. The cross levels everyone: rich and poor, educated and not. We're all lost and all found the same way.

This doesn't make behavior meaningless. When God changes your heart, you'll want to become more like Him, and good works become the fruit of salvation rather than an attempt to earn it. If you find yourself loving sin, ask whether your nature has really been changed. Faith without works is dead.

But if you've already trusted Christ and you keep telling yourself you're not good enough, you're limiting His blessing. You don't have to measure up to your boss, your sibling or the person who prays better than you at church. And if you ever start thinking you're all that, remember that without God you're nothing. Stop using faith as a merit-badge system. Believe what God says about you. Put your trust in Jesus, and you are counted righteous.

Key Scriptures

Questions to Reflect On

1. Where do you feel the gap between where you are and where you think you should be? What are you chasing to close it?
2. Do you tend to relate to God by trying harder or by trusting more? What does that look like day to day?
3. What does it mean to you that God walked the covenant alone and took the penalty Himself?
4. Who are you comparing yourself to? What would change if you believed you are already counted righteous in Christ?