Grace
A Precious Gift
Abiodun Fijabi once said, “When I have reached the limits of my ability, when my expectations have been exhausted…GRACE shows up…Grace is a help I couldn’t have asked for, a strength I did not possess. Where would I be without God’s Grace? I don’t even want to think about it.” This is a powerful question. Where would we be without the Grace of God? What would life be like without it?
Matt Chandler has a possible answer to what you or I would look like without God’s grace. “Without a heart transformed by the grace of Christ, we just continue to manage external and internal darkness.” I think Chandler has an excellent point here. Without grace, we would be full of sin, hatred, regrets, etc. The world would be dark and bleak with no way to escape the pain. Without having a transformed heart, my thoughts would become a weapon and my tongue as the trigger — firing at random and hurting the ones I love most.
However, with God’s grace in my life, it helps redeem and bring me back to the light of Christ. Anne Lamott once said, “It is unearned love — the love that goes before, [and] that greets us on the way.” It is a beautiful statement. Just think about it, I do not have to earn God’s love and neither do you! He lays it out before us freely! I agree with Lamott because I can see Him laying His love out before me every day. He takes me in as I am, and His grace and forgiveness wash over me. It consumes me and fills my heart with hope and joy.
Spiegel similarly said, “[g]race isn’t just forgiveness, it is forgiveness fueled by surrender.” Now that is just remarkable to think of grace as forgiveness. But in the process of accepting that forgiveness, we surrender ourselves to someone superior to us. I am just a sinner kneeling before my King, accepting the gift that He is handing to me daily. For His grace, kindness, and forgiveness are new every day. Both Lamott and Spiegel’s statements bring me comfort when I read them, knowing that there is love everywhere I look and forgiveness in what I do. In Ephesians 2:8–9, we are told, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”
When I was about the age of four, I accepted Christ as my savior. It was not until I was eighteen years old that I openly stated my faith by getting baptized. It was a show of grace and forgiveness from God in my life. He welcomed me into His family with arms wide open. So I came running into His embrace, and He held me tight. His grace has changed my life since I was very young, guiding me between right and wrong. It showed me how to ignore temptations and the lies that try to plague my mind. And it has continued to guide me through life ever since.
The gift of grace is so precious. But so often, we think that we have to earn grace. Donald Miller had a similar mindset in Blue Like Jazz when he said, “[a]ccepting grace is an action I could not understand…I wanted to feel as though I earned my forgiveness.”(83) But we cannot earn something that is given to us for free. God never runs out of grace, He gives it out freely and willingly. His forgiveness and grace are abundant as the grains of sand on a beach — it never ends.
Grace can change us and influence our lives if we just let it. It can transform me into the person God wants me to be. When “[g]race pushes me beyond my ability…[it] sharpens my eyes to see farther.” This quote reminds me of the story of David and Saul.
Saul was out looking for David to kill him. Saul was jealous of David and how God had favored him. One day, when Saul was out with his men searching for David, he needed to take a small break and relieve himself. Now David and his men were close by and saw Saul walking into the cave they were hiding in.
In the darkness of the cave, David’s men were talking about how this was too perfect. God had placed Saul in a vulnerable position so David could slay him. But David reprimanded them saying he would not touch the one God has anointed. So, instead of killing Saul, he came up behind him and quietly cut off a piece of his robe.
When Saul was done and came out of the cave, he heard David calling out to him. Saul turned around and saw David kneeling before him and he told Saul that the Lord had delivered him into his hands that day. David told Saul how he could have killed him in the cave but chose to show him mercy and grace. At that moment, David showed Saul the piece of cloth he had cut from his robe and held it out before Saul. David had a huge opportunity to take Saul’s life, but instead, he showed him grace and kindness.
David did not have to show Saul grace, kindness, or love, but he still gave it to him freely. “It is unearned love” and grace that guides me back to God’s caring embrace. Miller says, “The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return…God woos us with kindness,” Miller goes onto say, “He changes our character with the passion of His love…by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with Him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey.”(86) I love Miller’s points here. When we accept His grace and love it helps us to fall in love with Him so much more, and if we want that deeper relationship, we need to surrender ourselves daily. And when we have a “heart transformed” by grace and choose God every day, then we can “see farther” than what we can on our own.
So where would I be without grace in my life? I would be broken down and smashed to pieces by thoughts and emotions. And what was left would be put back together to be used as a weapon. Like a firing squad with no mercy — I would take my aim and shoot. But when I have grace in my life and allow it to change my heart, then I pour out love. I become a roaring wave coming to sweep others up in the love that God gave me.
