For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– Ephesians 2:8
Grace is a word that has come to mean so much to me. Why? What draws me to grace? I’m so filled up with the Holy Spirit when I hear that word that I’m at a loss for what to say. We know that grace is undeserved favor, but do we really get it?
We received a gift in the mail a few years ago when my hubby got home from work. Ok, it wasn’t “in the mail” so much as it was delivered to our house. It was gigantic and we couldn’t imagine what it was. Did they have the wrong address? It was most definitely our name on that package. We opened it up to find a big television for our bedroom! Did we need a big television in our bedroom? Nope. Did we deserve such a gift of thoughtfulness? Nope. So why was it given to us? It was simply a show of undeserved favor.
It was a gift of love. We didn’t need it, but someone wanted to bless us with it. Have any of you ever had trouble accepting gifts graciously? Do you allow yourself to feel that excitement of being on the receiving end and expressing amazing gratitude or do you feel an overwhelming condemnation upon yourself because you don’t think you deserve what was freely given?
When I give a gift, I just want to know that I was able to bring joy to someone’s life. I get so disappointed when someone tries to give me money to pay for it or doesn’t want to accept it. It isn’t because it wasn’t liked, it was a feeling of inferiority in them. Have we done this? Can you imagine how many bubbles we’ve burst just because we allow that inferior feeling to come over us and we didn’t accept the gift with excitement and joy? Why not accept grace for what it is…undeserved favor.
I don’t know about you, but I struggle in this area. I always falsely believed it was rude if you didn’t say, “Thank you, but that isn’t necessary. I really appreciate it, but please give to someone else.” What I really meant was someone who’s more deserving of the gift. HELLO…a gift isn’t something that we deserve. That’s the whole point. It’s called a gift not a payment.
How many times have you felt you didn’t deserve God sending his Son to die for your sins? You’re right, ya know. You didn’t deserve it, but that’s what God’s grace is all about. It isn’t payment for you doing a good job. It’s a gift! When you don’t simply accept it by faith, then you’re basically telling God his Son’s death was for nothing. Oh wow!
I challenge you to start looking into that one word…grace. What’s it all about? I guarantee you it’s even bigger than you are able to comprehend. I know that’s the case for me!
