Better Than I Deserve

Bulletins

Brian Nielsen
06/01/25 - General

Sometimes I probably still will say "Good, how about you?" Yeah, that's our common, robotic answer when someone asks how we are today. No matter whether we're having a good, average, or bad day, we say “good”. Then without waiting to hear the reply to “how -about - you”, we kept walking.

I've picked up a new habit recently. When someone asks how I am, I may say, "Better than I deserve." It has drawn laughs. At least one person asked what it meant. It's not meant to be funny, and it isn't without thought. My follow -up needs to be a sincere explanation. I am blessed beyond what I deserve. I've known healthier people with healthier eating and living habits to die at an early age, some by a sudden, unexpected tragedy, or some by a hard -to -understand disease.

I've also seen people struggling, hungry and homeless, and recognized I could have been in their position without a seemingly lucky break, especially without the help of friends and the Lord.

Why me? We were foretold of such things when Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, "for He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust."

Sobering reality is that had I died at the early age like some, I most likely would have been doomed to hell. God showed patience during my foolish, sinful years before my repentance. So, I most certainly am doing better than I deserve. I don't know why, but I am not going to question or argue.

A better -known man than me had this similar realization. In 2 Samuel 7:18 we read, "Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: 'Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?' " In Psalm 103:10, David said of our Lord, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities."

This comes on a condition David expresses in the next verse -- "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him."

The apostle Paul feared God enough to repent. He also acknowledged in I Timothy 1:12 -14 -- "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." Maybe you never persecuted disciples of Jesus as Saul did before he was converted to Christ.

Maybe you have not had the foolish, sinful past that I've had. But you still fall into the category of Romans 3:23,24 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”.

We receive this grace by following commandments of confessing Jesus as our Savior (Romans 10:9 -10, Acts 8:37), repenting (Acts 2:38, 17:30, Luke 13:3 - 5), being baptized (Luke 7:30, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21), and living faithfully (Matthew 10:22, Revelation 2:10).

When someone asks how we're doing, we could cite Ephesians 2:8 -9, which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Or in short, we can say, “better than I deserve.”

(Scriptures taken from NKJV)