Grace

 I have been thinking a lot about God’s grace... I’ve found it really difficult getting my head around the concept of “grace” predominantly because the only terms I’d heard it in relation to was the prayer you say before dinner and the sort of grace a ballerina has. However, since it is a word that comes across, probably daily for me; in the songs I listen to, every week at church or cell, obviously the bible, etc... I thought it was time I tried to understand what it really meant.
I recently got a journal from Quench Christian bookshop, which is one of the most beautiful Christian journals I have seen, intricately decorated and with “Amazing Grace” on the cover. Throughout the pages are quotes and passages all related to grace, so it’s very probable I will quote one randomly every now and again...

I really can’t think of another way that will help kick start the process of understanding grace other than what I did when I first became really curious... I turned to the dictionary. And this is the summary of what I found:

Grace:
1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action

2. A pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.

3. Favour or goodwill. Synonyms: kindness, kindliness, love, benignity; condescension.

4. A manifestation of favour, especially by a superior: Synonyms: forgiveness, charity, mercifulness. Antonyms: animosity, enmity, disfavour.

5. Mercy; clemency; pardon: He was saved by an act of grace. Synonyms: lenity, leniency, reprieve. Antonyms: harshness.

Looking for it in relation to God, what stands out most for me is “A manifestation of favour” and when I think of that, I imagine pouring out of God just a pure essence of love, flowing out onto all of us. Love so strong that nothing we can do, no matter how terrible, will ever stop him from loving us and wanting us. Just writing that made think... we NEED God. He doesn’t need us, but he WANTS us. That’s crazy. God would still be God without us around, but we wouldn’t still be us if it wasn’t for God - 1 Corinthians 15:10 “but whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour on me...”

Grace is... an outpouring, a boundless offering of God's self to us, suffering with us, overflowing with tenderness. Grace is God's passion. - Gerald G. May 

 I just opened my journal to that quote. It hit me hard. Grace is all of those 5 points from the dictionary definition, and so much more. Grace is loving so much, that you can't bear to see the one's you love, your creation, hurt themselves and hurt each other. So  instead, you send a part of yourself to be with them, walk with them, understand more what it's like to be them, suffer with them, feel. Love. Jesus is grace. He is the embodiment of the meaning of the whole thing. Grace is dying on a cross, to take the burden from the wrong doing of the whole of humanity. I saw on twitter recently someone posted a quote:

"Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered."

Now THAT is what's so amazing about grace.
Because of Christ's death on the cross, all of man's wrong doing in the past is forgotten, all of humanity's sin, forgiven. Because of God's grace, our debt is paid, we are free in him. And because of this grace, we are continually forgiven. I guess grace is when you know you've done something really wrong to someone and expect to punished for it hugely but instead, they just roll their eyes and say "it's ok, I knew you were going to mess up, so I've cleared up after that to make sure you aren't hurt and I've already forgiven you for hurting me. Oh I also know that you'll mess up again, but it's cool cos I'll forgive you for that too." - That's what God does.

His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. - Lamentations 3:22-23

Day after day after day, He pours His grace out on us, renewing it at every moment. We are always covered by grace. Always. And we really don't deserve it, but God thinks we're worth it. This continues to amaze me. If someone was always hurting me then asking for forgiveness over and over, I like to think I could tolerate it for a while, but the truth is at some point, I would give up on them. I'd tell them they had their chance but they kept mucking it up. It would pain me to have to keep forgiving and forgiving and forgiving. But surely if God can do it on that large a scale, we should be able to do it on this small scale. The thing about grace is that we don't have to earn it; are given it, but it isn't something to sit on, to keep to ourselves. We should also show it to others, and by doing that, it opens up a way for them to see God's grace through us.

I know more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness or goodness I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God - Philip Yancey

I am slowly arriving to a conclusion of what I understand about God's grace... and that is that I don't understand it. I'm never going to understand it. The fact he sent a part of himself, to take the brunt of our sins, so that we could live with him eternally in heaven, yet also experience a close and personal relationship with him now, on earth. He must really love us so much. And I can't thank Him enough that He does.

Listen to this song: Arms of Grace - Beth Croft because it sums it up pretty well and probably a lot better than my long ramblings :)

Grace, because God is putting everything back together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. - Romans 5:21 (MSG)