Most Understanding Lord, what the theologians tell me is that grace is ‘the unmerited favor of God’ … and so it is. However to me, it is the truest expression of Your love for me. Grace is not some stream of goodness that is poured out on me from time to time … it is a perpetual flow of Your love to Your child. Grace surrounds me every day and, when I allow it through my choices and decisions, it floods my life with Your love and best wishes. It is grace and Your love that produced the saying ‘God is good … all the time … and, all the time… God is good.” Because Your very essence is goodness, it is Your desire to fill my life with it. If I declare myself unworthy of the suffering and death You endured … Your resurrection assures me that Your love and devotion are not contingent on my behavior … rather Your grace. In the same way we humans love our children and want to care for them, so do You as my parent.
Grace embraces the concept of forgiveness and new beginnings. When I declare I’m unworthy of Your grace, I’m technically correct … however, since it is You who gave me life, it is You who wants me to be empowered with the means to attain my purpose for being here. Your grace is a sign of Your standing by me every day and Your desire to fill my life with good. The way I put Your grace to work in my life is by putting down self, choosing to follow in Your footsteps and walking by faith. Your grace is the spiritual engine that powers me through life and allows me to shine Your light into the world. Grace has become more pronounced with the sacrificing of Yourself for me. By believing in You, my salvation is assured and the storehouse of Heaven is open to me. Within grace is the power to perfect me and aid me in becoming more like You. Grace bestows on me Your worthiness and good standing.
I am thankful that I have been made complete in You. Loving and accepting You into my heart has eliminated my need to gain merit on my own. The Old Law was merit based, but it is no longer applicable to me because You have become my law. As a result of having immersed my life into Yours, I no longer serve sin but You. While You have called me to good works, grace is not my reward for doing them … it is Your response to meeting my needs. When I was born naturally, my parents did not leave me naked and stop feeding me … instead, they clothed me and fed me so I’d be sustained. I did not earn the right to food and clothes … it was provided through their grace … so it is with You. You provide grace to meet my needs and give me every chance to succeed. As a result, I will no longer wonder what grace is but accept it as the gift it is meant to be. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
II Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me.