The Life-Changing Power of God’s Grace

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – June 20, 2017

By Shana Schutte  

Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another. John 1:16

My mom belongs to a group of quilters who use special terms to describe their projects. One of those phrases is “UFO.” In their world, a UFO is not a bright extraterrestrial vehicle, but rather it’s an Unfinished Object. It’s one of those projects that you start, but that you are still working on and still working on and still working on. And maybe you shove it in a closet in your sewing room in January and then delightfully re-discover it in December. “Oh, lookie here! It’s that UFO that I never got around to completing!”

We are all unfinished while we are on this earth. Thankfully, God never forgets us or leaves us to figure out life on our own. He is always teaching, molding, and shaping us into greater reflections of Himself.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

One of the ways God has been growing me the last couple years and showing me I am “unfinished” is by teaching me about His grace. Because to be honest, I’m not really sure if I understood it before. Sure, I knew God’s grace was His unmerited favor, and I knew that I was saved by grace. But outside of that, I didn’t really understand how His grace affected my everyday life. For this reason, I was often driven to striving and I sometimes feared I could lose God’s affection.

But now I understand that God’s grace, His unmerited favor, is covenantal. It’s a blessing that cannot be broken because the cross guarantees it for every believer . . . for you and me, and your friends and family who also know Jesus. Let that sink in.

Because of the covenant of the cross, God’s grace–or His unmerited favor–will never change. 

Because you belong to Him, He will never withdraw His grace from you. It’s impossible for you to disappoint Him so much that He will stop loving you. His grace guarantees that you don’t have to carry your burdens alone.

It means you no longer have to strive in self-sufficiency because His grace enables you to do what you cannot do on your own. (2 Corinthians 12:8-9) Through God’s empowering grace you can love others well. Through grace, you are freed from feeling that you have to hide your sin from Him. God’s grace enables you to be all He has called you to be.

Because of grace, you no longer need to compare yourself to others or feel God has blessed them more. You no longer need to live in shame. God’s grace isn’t some fluffy church phrase that has no substance. It’s powerful. It’s life changing, and it’s so much like Jesus. What else could we possibly expect from a God who laid down His life for our sins and gave us His all? What a wonderful Lord we serve! May God grow you more and more in His grace.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone” (Revelation 22:21).

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