Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. . . . Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Galatians 2:21; 5:1

Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Do you ever get trapped by those heavy words? They lurk in the crevices of our minds, always ready and willing to pounce on us with guilt trips and loads of self-recrimination. They tell us we have let others down, we have failed to measure up, we ought to have done more. They can be so convincing and condemning. Combined, they may make a fun rhyme, but they’re not so fun when we allow them to bombard us!

These three words especially enjoy attacking our faith by telling us we need to do all kinds of extras to ensure we have right standing with God. They’re masters of confusion, and they are capable of muddling our thoughts to the point that we forget that our first priority is knowing Jesus—actually enjoying Jesus and His salvation and other blessings, instead of always trying to impress Him with the good things we do.

The shoulda, woulda, couldas were happening to the believers in the Galatian church. They were forgetting their freedom in Christ, so Paul wrote this letter to remind them that religious practices like circumcision do not guarantee a personal relationship with the Lord. Paul even called Peter out on the false and destructive behavior of trying to add to salvation. If Peter—someone who knew Jesus intimately—could be so blinded, do any of us have hope of conquering shoulda, woulda, coulda?

Yes! We have hope if we can take the message of Galatians to heart. Let’s enjoy Jesus with grateful hearts today. We can release ourselves from thinking His acceptance of us depends on how much time we volunteer, how much money we give, how many hungry people we feed, or how many Bible studies we attend.

Jesus wants our hearts open to Him, thankfully rejoicing that He conquered shoulda, woulda, coulda for us forever.

Let’s thank Him for setting us all free from striving to earn His acceptance—we already have it!