Do you believe in grace?
When you ask yourself what you need in order to be successful in life, what do you believe the answer is? When you consider the pursuit of happiness, fulfillment, peace, and joy, what do you identify as the root cause? When you are in the fight of your life for health, healing, restoration, conflict resolution, accomplishment, influence, leadership, or overcoming obstacles in whatever form they arise, where do you look for the answer, the strength, the solution, and the life that will get you there?
Do you believe in grace?
Why do some situations go in your favor? Why do some circumstances seem engineered to give you an advantage? Why do some people seem ready to bless you before you have even met them?
Do you believe in grace?
There are so many things in life that are completely outside of your control. If you believe that you have to be good enough, or strong enough, or smart enough, or talented enough and then things will start turning out in your favor, then you don’t believe in grace. If this is the case, then it’s time to make a change.
Grace is the willingness of God to love you, to bless you, to heal you, to save you, to restore you, to lift you up, to take you to the next level, to receive His promises, to press you through and give you the victory, to make you into a person of destiny, born on purpose for a purpose, to live in the goodness of God more and more every day, starting today.
Grace is God’s willingness to act. Grace is God’s desire for change. Grace is God’s ability to step in when He is needed most and to be there in the midst of the good times, the bad times, the easy times, and the hard times.
Grace is God’s passionate, persistent, dedicated, and specific offer to be there for you, to give you an advantage, to show you His favor, to shower you with blessings, to overwhelm you with goodness, to fill you with joy, and to take you places you’ve never even dreamed were possible.
Grace is the insurmountable, infinite, and eternal presence of God — not just where you ask for Him to be, but everywhere He chooses to be — not just with those who know and accept Him, but with every human being.
Grace is the opportunity that God gives every human life to live in His presence and enjoy the benefits of His favor.
So, do you believe in grace?
Too many believers today are waiting for someone else to believe before they step out in faith to receive God’s blessings. Don’t be that person.
This is your moment. God has already chosen you. God has already selected you, invested in you, and given you the opportunity to receive His grace at a whole new level starting today.
God is simply asking you to accept Him, believe Him, realize the amazing opportunity He is offering you, and receive the goodness and the power of His grace in your life.
One of the greatest ironies is that for many people the first response to hearing the good news of salvation and realizing the healing power of grace is to condemn themselves, accuse themselves, and persist in feelings of shame, guilt, failure, and defeat.
What’s worse is that many believe that these negative sensations are the desired experience of the presence of God. They feel holy only when they feel worthless, they believe they are humble only when they are oppressed by their sins, they express their despair as their greatest testimony of their faith, they pursue fear and guilt and shame as the primary emotions that indicate that they are succeeding in their pursuit of God, and they believe that they are not worthy, don’t deserve, and could not earn the blessings that God has offered and so they choose not to accept them — because they do not believe in grace.
Maybe this is you today. If it is, you are not alone. A lot of believers have been held back in their walks with God by not understanding the gospel of grace.
The fact is, the gospel of grace is called the gospel because it is good news. Not for somewhere, someday. But for right here, right now.
God is offering you actual solutions for what is facing you today. God is ready to heal, to restore, to recover, to conquer, and to give you the victory.
God’s blessings are chasing you down. God’s goodness is pressing to be received. God’s favor is rushing to overwhelm you, surround you, and fulfill you.
God’s grace is for real. God’s grace is for you. God’s grace is for today. God’s grace is for eternity.
You don’t deserve it. You couldn’t earn it. You can’t achieve it. But you can receive it.
“To all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” – John 1 (NLT)
God is offering His grace because He loves you. God is giving you His grace because He wants to. God is extending His grace not because of your obedience, but because of who He is and what He is capable of.
Do you believe in grace?
“From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.” – John 1 (NLT)
clarkechols
People in distress about their past actions are always relieved when they experience this present moment, when there is only grace. Only God’s love for me can be in this present moment. There is no shame. Only his grace. What a relief!
Steve Simons
In my experience, people who are not coming from a particularly dogmatic background do experience grace with gladness, joy, gratitude, and relief as you describe.
The irony is that many who grew up in religious contexts have a very different experience with grace because of many of the articles of faith that they may have been taught and accepted as true. Many believers have been burdened with a deeply entrenched belief or expectation about their own worthiness, humility, holiness, salvation, or other characteristics of their personal identity that made up a substantial part of their religious belief and that now cause them to interpret, question, or even reject that moment of grace on principle instead of just enjoying the blessings that God has promised for them.
The fact is, God’s grace is the doorway to every good thing that God has to offer and as believers God is simply asking for us to say, “Yes!” to everything that He wants to give us.
“Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.” – Revelation 3 (NLT)
clarkechols
How tragic! While I continue to let go of shame in the presence of the grace of God, it has never been a conflict with my faith! Whew! Thanks for the reminder of Rev 3!