This week God’s grace and mercy — and the unlimited bounty of it — he has overwhelmed me.
Every time I come up short, I mess up, or realize that I can’t do life on my own, He is there to pick me up, dust me off, and encourage me to keep going with my hand in His.
Because of all the things we are involved in, we somehow befuddle ourselves into thinking that God gives us grace because of all of the things that we do for Him and His kingdom. We think that our good deeds, our repentance, or our virtue somehow merit that we gain His grace. However, we find that the opposite is true. God loves us and gives us grace, regardless of what we haven’t been doing.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
{Romans 5:8, KJV}
Jesus could have waited to love us until we came to repentance, until we committed our lives to Him, until we have been baptized in Jesus name; but instead He chose to love us when we were dirty, grimy, and ridden with the pestilence of this world. He chose to love us and extend His grace when we could do nothing for His kingdom, when we knew nothing of the Bible, or the Holy Ghost. He chose to love us when we could hardly help ourselves.
But Grace!
Even the Apostle Paul relates to coming up short by placing himself at the head of all sinners.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
{1 Timothy 1:14-15, KJV}
Jesus knew we couldn’t complete this journey without His extensive help. We must come to terms with God’s grace always being unmerited. It’s all throughout the Bible: where men come up short and disappoint, or disobey God, but He still finds a way to use or forgive them! We do not deserve His grace, but we are also privileged to have it each and every day, along with faith and love!
What a wonderful God we serve! I encourage you to take some time to reflect on God’s grace today, or simply to thank Him for all that He has done in our lives.