Nate wasn’t a natural handyman. He didn’t have a work bench in the basement and was mystified by power tools. But as needs arose, he was game to try.

I remember the day he returned from Home Depot toting a brand new chain saw. Admittedly it was on the small side, but he was determined to participate in cutting up firewood after Bervin and his boys, along with our boys, had cut down a tree. Once Nate got the hang of it, he didn’t stop until all the wood had been transformed into a neat stack of firewood.

That evening as we were getting ready for bed, he began complaining about pressure in his chest and pain down his arm. Thinking “heart attack,” we headed straight for the ER.

After making a thorough analysis of test data, the doctor on duty stood in front of us with his clipboard and said, “We just can’t figure it out. Your heart seems healthy. What’d you do today? Anything unusual?”

Both of us had failed to mention Nate’s afternoon partnership with a chain saw, and when we did, the mystery was solved. He’d worked so hard and long, his chest and arm muscles were having spasms, which then caused pain, which masqueraded as a heart attack. With lots of muscle relaxant and a few pain pills, we headed home, relieved at the simple diagnosis.

How often do we mentally leap to the worst-case-scenario? Sometimes we even do that in our spiritual lives. For example, we make a wrong choice, become overwhelmed with our own sin, and jump to the conclusion of, “Surely God doesn’t love me anymore, after what I’ve done.”

Or we make progress winning over a bad habit only to slip and have to start all over again. “I’m such a poor example of a Christian,” we tell ourselves. “God must be really disappointed in me.”

Or we try to tell someone about our faith and bungle it badly, leaving out important information and landing on the insignificant. Later we beat ourselves up and say, “Surely God sees me as more of a liability than an asset when it comes to sharing his Gospel.”

But all of those analyses are just as bogus as Nate’s and my diagnosis of a heart attack. These statements of self- condemnation are based on believing lies from the devil rather than truth from the Lord. Scripture tells us our God is a God of grace, and because of that, sin and failure can no longer judge us. (Romans 6:14)

An accurate acronym for the word “grace” is, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, and because he paid a very dear price, we are allowed to be on the receiving end of those incredible riches.

So, if we’re ever tempted to leap to heart-attack-style conclusions about our spiritual inadequacies, here’s one more acronym: Give Ridiculous Assumptions Clear-cut Endings.

“Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20)