Regardless of the pivotal role it plays in our lives we often unknowingly think of grace as something that we should avoid, hear me out. We as humans tend to strive for perfection, we don’t want to taint our reputation even though we all have and will continue to fall short of the glory of God. In Christianity we often make mental lists on how to be a good Christian and we strive towards this using only our works. When this happens, we are pushing grace back to be our last resort, saved for when we run out of our own worthiness and good deeds. If we were, hypothetically, able to do all the right things without error then we would be minimising the space available until there was no free area for grace. Going further than that there would be no room for God. So, in claiming our independence from needing help, we are unknowingly renouncing the need for God’s grace and mercy in our lives.
However, it says in 2 Corinthians 12 that God’s grace is sufficient for us, and that His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Wow. Did you catch that? God uses our weakness in order to reveal the grace that he has for us. In a sense, we need our weakness so that the true goodness of God can be discovered. So next time you’re struggling, next time you are praying for God to remove that thorn in your flesh, remember that He is using that to speak into other people’s lives. Am I saying that we should intentionally keep doing wrong, definitely not? But regardless of the intent, mistakes will continue to be made because we are sinful creatures. In this way grace should be our first and only resort, we should embrace the fact that we are imperfect so that God’s love, and forgiveness can shine through. It is only by the grace of God that we can be saved, as it says in
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is a gift from God – not from works, so that no one can boast.”.
How can those around us see the majesty of the One on High if we don’t allow room for God to first expose our dirt? When we stand before him with arms wide open showing the imperfections in our lives it is then and only then that God’s power can be made perfect. It is then that those around us can see that Gods’ grace is enough for them too.
AUTHOR: Deanna Patrick, student at Avondale.