When I consider how difficult all aspects of grace are:
forgiveness, long-suffering, speaking the truth in love, etc. I am reminded how
vast, colossal and larger than life God is.
I struggle to respond in grace on a daily basis to people
who exclude, neglect, play favorites, forget to call, don’t follow-up, are
hurting, who feel lonely, and on and on it goes. And while I’m focusing on
shortcomings in others, or minimizing their circumstances, I fail to see how
often I display those same shortcomings and maximize my own circumstances.
Grace is hard. It’s hard for other people, and it’s hard for
me.
But God operates in a state of grace at all times. If that
doesn’t humble and cause us to marvel at the sheer difference between God and
us, between His abilities and ours, His wisdom and ours, I don’t know what
will.
When we understand how hard it is for us, as humans, to respond
and live in grace, it sheds a sobering light on the shadow of the towering,
ever-present, larger-than-life God that is cast upon us. In our own struggle
with grace, we come to appreciate the unbroken, uninterrupted, eternal state of
the grace of God.
“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 weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Our weakness to be the source of grace becomes our strength
when we rely on God—through Jesus Christ—for His.
copyright Barb Harwood
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained
access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope
of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus.” 2 Timothy 2:1
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize
with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as
we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time
of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
‘God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.’”
James 4:6
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