Grace

In life, we desire measurable and attainable steps for moving forward. We don’t want confusing, we want easily achievable. This is why for many of us, grace is solely understood as God’s permissible will for us to simply do what we want to do. Unfortunately, the reality of grace is both a lot more complex and a whole lot simpler.

We want to live by grace but we feel a tension in wanting to be successful in life. The two are often in juxtaposition. So how do we allow God’s grace to be as sufficient in our lives as we believe it to be?

We are afraid that living by grace either means being lazy, or it means great responsibility. We feel a weighty burden to live up to the grace that has been bestowed to us. The experience of living in a grace from God that is enough to cover both our strengths and our weaknesses is much harder to quantify.

What we must understand is that God’s grace is an invitation for relationship. It is an invitation for a greater expression of intimacy than we can encounter elsewhere in life. The gift of grace through Jesus is by definition a bond of intimacy.

But our tendency is to see God as the rule-maker or harsh judge of our life. This simply keeps us at a distance from the truth that God loves.

We must understand that we are now defined by grace. It is part of our identity. Through Jesus, grace is the new foundation. Grace is our new normal. It’s the game changer.

But this level of intimacy that God offers in His grace challenges our defenses. For to receive such love, we must come again and again to a place of full surrender where we realize we are not in control (this might be news to some of you). As much as we think we can hide parts of ourselves from Him, He already knows. In our condition, we fear that the very act of vulnerability with God will bring condemnation, guilt, and shame. However, embracing the intimate grace Jesus offers freedom. We realize that nothing (and when I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing in all of creation) can label us, define us, or bind us because the One with all authority has called us His own.

Famous author Brennan Manning lived a life of grace more evidently than few others. After many years of experiencing this grace he responds, “If asked whether I am finally letting God love me, just as I am, I would answer, ‘No, but I’m trying.”

Grace is the means of relationship with God. It is the experience of a grace that frees us which eliminates the need to quantify God’s grace in our lives. We can simply be.

As a good friend said to me this week, “Unless the idea of living by grace is uncomfortable, we haven’t understood what it means.”