Grace is a beautiful word. It’s a word that has so many implications for the life of a Christian.
One way that I often describe grace, is that it’s a gift that we don’t deserve. This gift has ultimately been given to us through God sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross and rise again on our behalf. The gospel is indeed a gift of grace. We didn’t deserve this gift, yet God chose to extend it to us.
If we choose to believe and trust in this gift, we are given eternal life with God, which is absolutely incredible! There is no longer any fear of death or need to worry about our eternal destiny. This has implications to our life right now as well, in how we live and interact with others.
But, this grace also does more. It gives us strength to face the challenges of everyday life. Let’s look at an example in Scripture:
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul received a vision from God into Heaven, or paradise. The Scripture says that he “heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” In other words, Paul was given the opportunity to see and hear things that no other man had heard or seen in that time. Because Paul experienced this, God then sent him a “thorn in the flesh”, to keep him humble and focused on his dependence on God. There is debate about what this thorn actually was, whether it was psychological, physical, or both. Paul writes that it was “a messenger of Satan”. This kind of reminds us of the story of Job, where God allowed Satan to mess with Job, because He knew that Job would overcome, grow stronger in his faith and be used mightily for the Kingdom through that challenge. Job would show Satan just how much he trusted in the Lord.
Now, there is obviously some mystery as to how this worked in 2 Corinthians 12. The main purpose as to why this happened though, is because there would be a great temptation for Paul to boast and brag about what he saw and place the glory on himself. God knows the heart of mankind and our tendency towards pride.
So, Paul went through some suffering after this experience, but take a look as to how he responded in verses 8-10:
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
In summary: God’s grace is made greatly known when Christians are suffering.
Think about it. Those that do not know the Lord have no true source of strength. There comes a time in each persons life when being tough, having grit, being disciplined, and other human inner-strength sources hit a wall. We literally can only give so much, or tap into so much strength and ability on our own.
But, if you have a relationship with Jesus, not only does God’s grace save you and live in you, it literally SUSTAINS you, and we are especially reminded of this when we suffer. The Holy Spirit overflows in and through us when we have nothing left to give. He gives us that extra push, motivation, strength, and ability to keep our eyes on eternity. This my friends, is the gift of grace.
So yes, grace has many implications in our lives. But today, think about how the gift of God in us is made known when we are suffering and have hit our limit. This is a powerful testimony to the world that is trying to be too strong. Our weakness is the avenue of God’s grace being manifested in our lives and displayed to others.
As Paul says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Grace & Peace!
Matthew Weaver 