What is this grace? Isn’t that one of those Bible words no one really understands anymore? Why do I need to worry about it anyway? It’s not going to make any difference on my tax return this year, or on my job next week, or on the exam I have to take tomorrow.
Maybe that is what you are thinking about grace and this whole God thing. Why does it matter to you? You have enough to eat, you have electronic devices to keep you busy, you have friends who make life fun, and you’re not sick (most of the time). Why should you worry about anything?
If you don’t know yet, you will learn eventually that life has a way of interfering with your priorities. All you want to do is get by each day with a minimum of trouble, but things happen. You run out of Fruit Loops. The cell phone dies. Friends misunderstand what really happened and start saying mean things about you. Spouses and parents get mad. You come down with the flu. The list goes on and on.
What do you do when these things happen? Do you get mad? Do you yell at God and anyone else in range? Or do you look for another answer – maybe for the cause of it all?
The fact is, life happens, and it’s not always pretty. Sometimes the ugly things are our own fault – we didn’t study; we tried to manipulate a situation; we lied to our significant other; we stayed up too late playing Call of Duty. But sometimes we do the right things and still get slammed. Why?
There are many answers, but I’ll just give you one: ugly things happen because God wants us to look beyond ourselves. There is a bigger world out there that He wants us to impact, and we can’t do it if we stay in our little self-absorbed cocoons. Instead of getting mad, understand that God provides a way out of the situation, and then ask Him what that way is.
You will find that the way out has a lot to do with grace.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV)
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