Grace

 

As we near Thanksgiving, one of the gifts for which I am most thankful is grace. On the Enneagram Personality types, my type is labeled “The Achiever,” so I’ve always had somewhat of a struggle with grace. I want to be able to do things on my own, to earn my keep, to have accomplishments to point to and be able to share with everyone what I have done, so sometimes it’s hard for me to sit back and rest in the knowledge that I don’t have to do anything to earn grace. There are even some day when I think it might be easier if it was something I had to earn, because that way I would know that I really received it.

However, God, in the wisdom that only God has, decided that grace would be given freely to all—with no payment necessary (at least on our part.) I was reflecting on grace because of a lyric that I have heard probably 100 times. I had one of those moments as I was driving in to work yesterday where something made me stop and reflect on what I was actually singing-

“I don't wanna abuse Your grace
God, I need it every day
It's the only thing that ever really
Makes me wanna change.”

How powerful! The thought that we don’t change because we are trying to earn grace, but we change in response to the fact that it has already been given. We aren’t loving to try and earn love, we are loving because we are loved, and we want to give that love to others. That is indeed something to celebrate.

It also made me think of this graphic that I saw on social media this week:

 

Again—such a freeing and amazing thought that when we make a mistake, we don’t have to run FROM God, but instead God wants us to run TO Him. I don’t know about you guys, but while I have so many blessings for which to be thankful, this Gospel message is one of the most important!

May we live in the freedom of the fact that we belong to a God to who is loving and full of grace, and may we imitate that God in our relationships with one another. It is needed in our world, friends-- Today and always.