I had some documents to take to Centre Link…a humbling and mostly frustrating experience.
As I drove into the car park, I noticed a very nice SUV pulling up next to me. A middle age couple with two teenagers were getting out. Avoiding eye contact, I briskly walked towards the door determined to keep that little bit ahead. My need was greater than theirs…after all, I had to get to my Bible Study, didn’t I!
In a split second, I’d judged this family. It didn’t take long, however, before snippets of conversation made me realise that the lives of this family had just been turned upside down, Dad had lost his job.
Perhaps one of the reasons I find it such a struggle to be a grace giver is because I just don’t get the significance of why God has shown His grace to me.
I’ve had a few big moments in my life where I’ve known how absolutely undeserving I am and how HUGE is the mercy and kindness of my God!
I had one of those moments recently but this time I found myself looking at this truth from a totally new perspective. This time it wasn’t about me! No longer was my focus on how undeserving I was but instead, I found myself praising God…consumed by a deep desire to worship Him; this God who is so rich in grace!!! Where there had been guilt, I found freedom; where I had been consumed with my failures I was now consumed by God’s grace. I finally realised…God’s grace isn’t about me…it’s all about Him!
I grew up with the understanding that God’s grace was His undeserved gift to me. Well, yes, it is but it’s so much more than that! It’s actually about God being God! It’s our heavenly Father showing us, through Jesus, something more of His indescribable self! And…the reason God has revealed His grace to me is that others may also know this grace. OK, it may have taken me 68 years to see this but it reminds us God never gives up on us!
However…that was last week. What about tomorrow? Next week? Will I forget what God has just taught me or will I see His grace flow out through me tomorrow just as naturally and effortlessly as my judgemental attitudes did last week?
Father God, open my eyes and my heart that I may understand even more the ‘incomparable riches of Your grace’ for it’s then, and only then, that Your grace can flow through me to touch the lives of others. Ephesians 2:4-10