We have wal­lowed long in the mis­ery of a depraved exis­tence; lan­guished will­ingly in a lifestyle of sin and suf­fer­ing. We find our­selves now in the debt of divine prov­i­dence; and Oh what a for­tu­nate prov­i­dence we have. We are chased so unde­servedly by the intense, rav­ing love of God.

This grace by which we are offered new life, was bought with the pre­cious blood of Christ. There is a sacred sur­ren­der we must find in our­selves to this grace. For we as yet will never deserve it, but are unde­servedly offered such eter­nal elixir. This grace was not earned; so we may never boast. Nor are we unwor­thy to receive it, because it is God’s gift to mankind; there­fore both uplift­ing and arrest­ing in its nature. We do not deserve it, but we may not ignore it. We must humbly accept it.

The accep­tance of grace invokes in us a weight of the deprav­ity of our souls; we may finally under­stand what we are say­ing in accept­ing so glo­ri­ous a hand­out: we are sin­ners, in need of some­thing out­side of our­selves, to redeem us and trans­form us.

To truly accept grace, it must move from the realm of knowl­edge to the realm of expe­ri­ence. As we live and move in it, it must be incar­nated in our lives. Grace must find its root in our souls and affect us from the inside out.

Grace does not look for the strong, the put-together, the ful­filled, or the rich. It seeks those who would accept its scan­dalous hand­out of favor and bless­ing. Grace fills and over­whelms our souls. Grace brings in us a response of won­der, and demands of us com­plete obe­di­ence. Grace redeems our desires and crav­ings. Grace becomes the ful­fill­ment of our souls, the light that shines in the void, and the answers to our ques­tions. Grace lives and breathes in us as we pro­tect, nur­ture, and mature it in our lives.

Grace is both for the bro­ken and the proud. One needs to grasp it’s all encom­pass­ing won­der, while the other needs to accept it’s all encom­pass­ing sov­er­eignty. Grace must be assim­li­ated holistically.

Grace finds us in our val­leys, and yet reminds us still on our moun­tains. It becomes every­thing that we hold onto in life. Grace is per­son­i­fied in the self­less, sac­ri­fi­cial nature of Christ; the blessed, life-giving nature of the Father; the com­fort­ing and enabling anoint­ing of the Holy Spirit. God is the source of grace in our ives; there­fore we must remain con­nected and in tune with God.

Grace seeks to make fools of us all: It belit­tles our plan­ning and schem­ing. It pokes fun at our man­u­fac­tured ful­fill­ment and hap­pi­ness. It under­mines our fool­ish belief that we can thrive apart from it. It flies in the face of logic or rea­son. It infects our emo­tions and desires. It dis­places our­selves from the throne of our souls and ush­ers in the per­son of Christ and his King­dom. It answers our ques­tions of inse­cu­rity and dis­be­lief in the sheer good­ness of God. It takes us to God’s throne and teaches us to trust God.

Grace intro­duces human­ity to God’s love, faith­ful­ness, and lord­ship over our lives. In the grace of God we find our­selves pur­sued by a jeal­ous lover, a faith­ful friend, and a self­less father. Grace intro­duces us to the God’s char­ac­ter. Grace grips us to this rela­tion­ship we have with the Lord. It is both our gift and last­ing inher­i­tance, affect­ing our present and push­ing us towards God’s best. It binds us to God. We are His work­man­ship, from Cre­ation, to redemp­tion, to eter­nal sal­va­tion. We are now because of grace, the recip­i­ents of a divine favor reserved for fallen human­ity. Grace fol­lows us from the moment we breath our first breath, to the wants and crav­ings of child­hood, to the ups and downs of becom­ing an adult, to the joys and sor­rows of life, to our very last breath we breathe on earth. Grace helps us respond to the gen­tle and faith­ful woo­ing of God toward us. Grace is the mea­sur­ing rod of eter­nal life.

Grace daily shouts to us that it is not about what we did, are doing, or will do. It reminds us that we are loved first and fore­most uncon­di­tion­ally by God. It reminds us that noth­ing can sep­a­rate us from God’s love save our will­ful rejec­tion of grace. Grace finds us daily to remind us that God is in con­trol and that He leads us. Grace reveals to us the blaz­ing being that God truly is. It reveals to us the promise of blessed rela­tion­ship, and pro­duces in us the desire to draw close to God. We find our­selves mak­ing God our daily focus when grace rules and reigns in our hearts.