I've been thinking a lot about grace lately. What is it? Why do I receive it? How should it change the way I look at life? The questions go on and on... and I have just stumbled onto a great answer to some of those very questions.
I have always believed grace to mean God's riches at Christ's expense. An acrostic I learned many years ago and it has always made perfect sense. But, it only answers the what part of my question. Of course until now that's always been plenty for me. I am not the person who has to know how and when and where it all works - I just believe it works with or without me and I am fine with either conclusion. While I have a solid faith and know enough to get into a healthy debate with others over said faith, sometimes I believe that I am a little too "passive". By passive I mean that I lack full emotion and understanding of action and consequence in certain situations. In other words if the Bible says it - I believe it without contemplating what it means in individual situations. Hence, I am diving in to something deeper. While I will always be the same person I have always been, passive and all, I want to know that I have reason to be so passive.
Now you are probably thinking, "What does all that have to do with grace?". Well, not a lot, but grace was just the first depth I thought I would try and tackle. The subject matter came to me in the form of a quote, an excerpt if you will. I love quotes... little morsels of wisdom from other more experienced souls. Quotes give me just enough to be intrigued and seek out truth on my own. So, I came across a quote that spoke to me and then went off to find its source - a paper entitled "God's Purpose of Grace", by Horatius Bonar, a Scottish churchman and poet.
But how far has this grace come? It has come the whole length of a sinner’s distance from God. It did not wait till the sinner sought it, ere it came forth. It came unbidden and undesired. Nor did it wait till some of the distance had been removed, or some of the hindrances surmounted by the sinner himself. It traversed the whole distance itself, and over-leaped, or rather leveled every barrier. It burst forth spontaneous from the bosom of eternal love, and rested not till it had removed every impediment, and found its way up to the sinner’s side, swelling round him in full flow. It does away the distance between the sinner and God, which sin had created. It meets the sinner on the spot where he stands, and it approaches him just as he is. It does not wait till there is something to attract it, nor till there is some good reason in the sinner for its flowing to him. No; unattracted, and without any reason in the sinner, it pours itself forth in all its fullnesstowards objects whose only title is their utter worthlessness, and their possessing nothing for the holy eye of God to delight in. (Horatius Bonar)
Did you catch that? Not only do we recieve grace at Christ's expense and for free - we don't even have to search for it. Grace doesn't wait for us to seek after it or decide we need it - Grace over-leaped everything in its path to find us! It removes the distance between us and a perfect God and meets us where we stand, just as we are! Now that's what I call amazing!
Sure, this may be "old hat" to some of us, but it never hurts to be reminded that God is in complete control - He is Sovereign! If He takes the initiative in a matter so precious as grace, how much more can we trust that He will initiate the smaller blessings in life. How much more can we rest in the fact that He is "into the details" of our lives and that at just the right moment, whether we are looking for it or not, He grants us His grace and peace.
Wow.... I just had to share that today and while we are content in the waiting, I hope you will seek Him out today. I want to be found searching when He finds me!
Hakuna Matata!
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