Recent events have led me to dwell on grace a little more than I normally do.
I was reminded last night through various conversations that most of those who are lost have no idea of what grace is. They are blind to see grace in their lives and don’t think about such a thing and don’t live it out to others.
“If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous” (1 John 2:1)
That is grace: that although we sin, as we all do, God forgives us. We act out grace because God gave us grace.
I tell people all the time”if God can forgive me I can look past this thing that you think it so bad that you feel a need to apologize for." Really nothing is a big deal when it come to extending grace because God showed me grace.
I wrote a blog a year or more ago about grace meaning empowerment. You can search for it and find it if you like. What I learned then was there is a power in humility and loving people. I was so struck this week by Acts 2 because the apostles were in awe of all that God was doing. Awe comes from being humble and all the miracles came because they were simply extending a full measure of grace.
We are so dreadfully off from what that fellowship looked like back in the first century church .Things need to change as drastic as that wind that came from heaven in their fellowship.I believe God in His grace in His love and our reflection of Love and our view of Him as Holy Father will l'takken olam b'malkhut Shaddai, fully and absolutely.
JG
2 comments:
That has always been something you have said that has struck me..."If God can forgive me, surely I can forgive you." You should know you saying that to me countless times has caused me to rethink what forgiveness means and really looks like. The saying "if my God is for me, who can be against me?" comes to mind right now. That coupled with what you say leads me to believe that we are not to possess wrongdoings committed against us; for we are not to possess anything in our lives. When we have the position of thinking we need an apology or remedy, I think our own pride gets in the way and we think of ourselves much more highly than we ought. We forget that we have already received all the forgiveness we could ever need from our Father and forget our own wretched position as sinners.
At the same time, I do still believe in the importance of asking for forgiveness when you yourself commit a wrongdoing. In that process we humble ourselves, recognize the sin, confess before God, and those who it has affected. For example, if I were to commit a wrongdoing against you and never confess it simply because I know the forgiveness is already there, then am I really possessing a repentful heart desiring to please God?
Overall I think there is the necessity of unconditional forgiveness and also confession of wrongdoing. it's what makes grace what it is...that we would see the ways we fall short and then receive the forgiveness that we surely do not deserve.
By the way, thanks for writing this post :-) I enjoyed it as always. Love you!
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