Now is the time... To Receive His Grace

…….His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV)

A few years ago Philip Yancey wrote a book called “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”. It’s a good question isn’t it? John Newton penned the song Amazing Grace over 200 years ago and it is still a favourite today. He had previously been a slave trader till God touched his heart.

The apostle Paul had experienced God’s amazing grace during a mission to capture, jail and kill the followers of Jesus whom Paul considered to be enemies of the truth. The grace and mercy of God so captured his heart that he began all his letters to the churches with the greeting “Grace and peace to you….” The apostle Peter had experienced the amazing grace of God after his denial of his Lord in his most difficult hour. He too wrote greetings of “grace and peace” in his letters to the churches.

Like John Newton, Paul and Peter, we too are subject to failure during our walk with Jesus. It can be so devastating when we thought we’d succeeded in overcoming a particular area of sin in our lives, only to fall flat on our face in defeat….again. Many times I have thought “I’ll never be good enough, God can’t possibly be bothered with such a failure.” How wrong that kind of thinking is. God knows us, he knows that our spirit is willing but our flesh weak. That is why he provides his strength by which we can overcome, and his grace by which we are made acceptable to him. That’s what Jesus’ death was all about – he died for failures such as me and you. It is challenging to the pride in us to have to come (again) to God and ask his forgiveness for a besetting sin, and receive his grace to begin afresh, but that is what we must do.

Receiving God’s grace makes us acceptable to him, and when we find acceptance by God we find a new acceptance of ourselves. Being released from the treadmill of trying to “be good enough” and realizing that we need God’s help, deals a deathblow to pride. It is then that his grace within us will spill over in blessing and acceptance towards others so that they too can experience the love of God through seeing his grace working in and through us.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you so much for your work on the cross which enables me to be made acceptable to God. Help me to humbly receive your grace and walk in your peace with joy. Amen