Falling into Grace

Falling into grace... Doesn't that sound like a freeing thought? I heard this phrase in the lyrics of a Christian song a few days ago. It caught my attention so readily that I thought about it for days. It sounded good - even musical, but was it possible? How could this be with all the mess-ups most of us could name in our own lives? What did this really mean? Was it even possible in my own life?

I found the answer to be yes to all of the above. Like me, scripture is full of people who needed nothing short of the opportunity to fall into grace. That is God's unmerited favor. Adam and Eve totally destroyed God's perfect plan in the garden by taking the word of the serpent over God's word. They found themselves naked, hiding, and frantically trying to cover themselves and their sin. Moses ran away, a long way from home, for losing his temper and killing an Egyptian. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery for a few coins, never expecting to face him again. Yet, after many years, they bowed before him after such ill-treatment of their brother at his mercy because they were starving and needed food for their families. The woman at the well, ashamed of her past and her current living situation, found Jesus willing to meet her where she was and to stand up for her in the midst of some seemingly important people. If these are not enough examples, there's also Peter, who made the ultimate promise to never forsake Jesus, yet he did it not once but three times. All of these people of the past were really no different than you and me. Our common ground is a little on the negative side, in that we have all failed to meet the standards of a holy God, which can be translated as 'we are sinners'. Our common ground is found not in what we have done but rather in what we need - grace. For all the times we have messed up: big sin, little sin, major crime, minor crime - it did not matter then, and it still doesn't matter today. People throughout time need the one thing none of them, then or now, deserves: grace.

So, we must decide. We will create our own version of Operation Fig Leaf and try to hide from our shortcomings. Will we wear a coat of self-confidence and boasting like Peter, negating our bent toward sin, or even try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps to fix our faults, only to prolong the inevitable? If so, we miss it, all of it, the very thing we need most, grace.

So, friend, whatever it is, lay it down and surrender it. Fall into His grace so freely offered. Seize it and give it to others. You will be glad you did.

But He told me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:9

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