Grace Truly Is Amazing. It Saved A Wretch Like Me.

Grace.

The word alone is beautiful.  If you look it up in the thesaurus, you see synonyms such as “ compassion, mercy, kindness, and love”.  Likewise, if you look at the antonyms, you see words such as “cruelty, harshness, hatred, and meanness.”

We, as Christ followers, are called to show grace to the world.  That’s right.  We are called to show compassion to those who are hurting, mercy to those who need help, kindness to everyone (including those who aren’t kind to us), and love should exude out of our pores! 

We all sin.  Every day. 

We all have days where others might consider us to be cruel, harsh, hateful, and mean.  You are not alone.  You’re not perfect.  Neither am I.  Neither is anybody else.    We are all so very broken.  Jesus Christ was the one who ever lived on planet Earth and remained sinless.  As far as we may think we have come…we still sin.

Temptation is a daily struggle.  It’s a tug of war challenge to do the right thing, take the right path, say the right words, and it’s human nature to look for the hidden path, the get-even moment or that chance to be devious and take a risk.  Stop beating yourself up when you stumble.  God always knew that you would be tempted to make the wrong decision every once in a while, but He has not turned His back on you.

What if we were really honest with God about our sin?  What if we were humble enough to be open with each other about our brokenness?  Brennan Manning describes this beautifully in his book, All Is Grace.  He writes, “My highest hope is for all of us to stop trying to fool others by appearing to have our act together.”  Are you humble enough to do that?

It is because of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross that we get to experience grace that truly is amazing!  When we repent with a humble heart and ask Him to forgive us, He does.  How awesome is that?  People that we love are going to sin and hurt us, and we are to forgive it.  If you’ve ever had to do that, you know how hard that can be.  It’s easy to get our defenses up and start judging people who have hurt us, but we can’t.  That is God’s job alone.

Father-

Thank you for your sanctifying grace that saves me every day.  Thank you for allowing me to wake up each day and see Your wonder.  Keep my efforts focused on helping people around me and myself to be better every day and to reflect You in my actions.  Thank you for the powerful shield of grace that protects me from the enemy’s snare.  I am so grateful and unworthy.

Amen.

Passages to Ponder:

Ecclesiastes 7:20- Not a single person on Earth is always good and never sins.

Psalm 37:24- Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Ephesians 1:7- He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.

Contributors:  Karen Bromby, Monica Brown, Michele Killion and Kim McClure