Gift exchange

It is funny to me… how often I am “the hero in my own story”.  

I recognize that It is hard for me to see myself through the same critical lens I use to view the world around me, and how - when people frustrate me - I seldom wonder if I am frustrating them as well.

Grace is a term that means “courteous goodwill” and “free and unmerited favor”.  

Ephesians 2:8 tells me “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The fact of the matter is I haven’t earned God’s grace, nor could I….no matter how many ditches I dug, kindnesses I offered, or prayers I said.  Because every day that I’m alive I do things or say things or think things that are sinful in their nature.

God knows it - and yet He loves me anyway.  And since the penalty for sin is death, God offered himself as a holy and living sacrifice to pay the penalty for my sins.  His grace is a gift, and because of it, I have been redeemed.

That humbles me because I know how often I mess up and I know the shameful things that lurk in my past.  I also know that regret alone is not enough - I NEED God’s grace.

And so when I am tempted to get mad, frustrated, or annoyed by someone who is not behaving as I would want them to, I try to remember that grace is a gift, and that I need pass the gift I have been given along to them! 

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