Praise God for His Grace

I like to tell myself I believe in the grace of God. I’ve heard many times that grace is undeserved favor. I buy that simple explanation as in my humanness I am fully aware that I do not deserve much of anything and yet God has given me much. Another saying I’ve heard about God’s grace is that it is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. I believe in that kind of grace, too.

However, I don’t pretend to fully comprehend God’s grace toward me. That is because I truly believe that I am flawed and totally undeserving of total forgiveness and grace. I struggle to believe that God can forgive me. I also struggle with forgiving myself. Fortunately, God is not limited by my abilities, either to believe in Him or to forgive myself. His grace is bigger than my beliefs and bigger than me. Just when I think I understand His grace, I am overwhelmed by my lack of understanding. I can only seem to hold onto the thought of total forgiveness and grace for short periods of time. Then it wanes and I struggle with believing in it again.

In Knowing God, J.I. Packer put it this way: “The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of the demerit.” (p. 120) What this says to me is that God loves me and shows that love no matter how good I am. It also says that no matter how bad I am, that same love is freely shown to me. You see, God’s grace covers me regardless of whether I am holy (which I am not except in Christ’s forgiveness) or whether I am sinful (which I often am). His grace is not dependent upon my goodness or my badness. It just is. And it’s all encompassing. It covers me whether I’m good or bad, and it covers me because I am both good and bad.

It is beyond my comprehension that God can love me so unconditionally. Yet, He does. And He does so because He wants to. His grace is something to be thankful for and something for which to praise Him.