This morning I was reading out of Ephesians 2. My home church, Crossroads Community Church, recently did a 21 day fast as a congregation and there was a prayer journal that went along with it. I was on vacation for the first week of the fast, so I am just now completing the journal, but today was day 19, and the verse for the day is Ephesians 2:8-9 which says:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast."
As I read this verse this morning, I had an incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit. I always desire for the Holy Spirit to speak to me, and some mornings are more clear than others, and this particular morning, the message that God was desiring to speak into my heart was crystal clear. His message to me is this: If I offer you free grace, that you would never be able to obtain on your own, in return I want you to turn from your sin and pursue righteousness."
Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of believers and bestowal of blessings.
You see, we are given the free gift of grace... us humans... unworthy, sinful prideful human beings; but Jesus gives us grace for free, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to try and earn it. That literally blows my mind. I cannot do anything to earn grace, but Jesus is just waiting to hand it to me and all I have to do is grab on to it. I don't know about you, but the fact that I don't have to work for grace makes me lazy sometimes. Free grace that is unearned but freely given... well then I guess I'll keep on sinning and just scoop up some of that free grace... this is my thought sometimes, and I am not proud of it.
Shouldn't the thought of the most perfect, flawless man, the very flesh and blood of God, leaving perfection and pure bliss in Heaven, coming down to earth as a human and experiencing true pain and suffering-- even worse than we will ever experience-- and then willingly being crucified to pay for our sins, make us WANT to strive toward living a life that is constantly walking toward righteousness? I'm not saying we won't make mistakes, because we absolutely will and that is where free grace comes in. But we shouldn't be paralyzed by our sin where we do nothing. Likewise, we shouldn't continue our sinful action, but we should confess our sins and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and continue our walk toward righteousness.
Jesus paid a very high price to allow us the gift of free grace-- shouldn't the way we live reflect the thanks and gratitude we have in our hearts for that incredible gift? Shouldn't we turn from our sinful ways, because I sure don't want to hurt the heart of the man who loves me so deeply that he chose to suffer for me.
My challenge to myself this week (and if you feel so obliged, I invite you to join me) is this:
When I catch myself living sinfully, I will repent and reflect on what I did wrong so that I can truly do my best to not sin the same way again, and then I will apologize for hurting the heart of my savior with my sin... and then I will scoop up some of that free grace and thank my God for loving me unconditionally and for the gift of grace so that I can spend eternity with Him in Heaven some day.
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