Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

The Uncomplicated Life of Faith

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Come close to God, and God will come close to you. (James 4:8)

What if being close to God were simple? What if this thing called faith isn’t as complicated as it’s cracked up to be? And while I’m asking the critical questions: What if you could be liberated—I mean really set free—from all those expectations that organized religion and even a few of your intense friends heap on you? What if I could show you how to get rid of all the excess baggage? What if you could return to a life that doesn’t require running double-time or maintaining a super spiritual standard based on a hectic schedule?

I have the feeling you’d be interested.

The life of faith was never meant to be complicated.

In a sentence: If Christ’s life of liberating grace brings you hope beyond the bonds of legalism, you dare not miss Christ’s words of simple faith to help you live beyond the harassment of expectations. As you will discover, the Christian life is not based on high-level performance but on quiet faithfulness, not on impressive works but on deep relationships.

God came to our rescue while we were trapped in a dark dungeon of despair. He gave us what we did not deserve and could not earn. He freed us. By breaking the iron bars of sin, He opened the gates of hope. Grace awakened us to a whole new world. But where do we go from there? Having been set free, how do we live? What’s next?

To the surprise of many, the life Jesus lived and taught so clearly is neither demanding nor complicated. I like to think of it as a life beyond the dungeon.

Christ, who came to set captives free, still offers a life worth living to those who have been liberated. It is a life that may not always be easy or comfortable, but one thing is certain: It is not all that complicated. As we shall discover from Jesus’ own words, spoken on a mountain in the first century, it is a life of simple faith. To make it more than that is heresy.