Grace Covers Everything
Grace covers everything. Absolutely everything.
When you choose to believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, God washes you clean. He no longer sees the scars, rebellion, and filth of the sin nature and instead sees you as spotless, beautiful, forgiven, and justified.
He desires for everyone to believe. He loves everyone, believer or not, but He not only loves, but has adopted and takes personal care of believers.
All good things come from Him, both inside ourselves, and outside, both Spiritually and physically. And because such is the case, we never ever need to fear the opinion of other people. No matter how good we think we are, or how bad. Life is not about trying to look good in the sight of Man, nor is it about trying to look good in the sight of God.
Life is about depending on, resting in, and rejoicing in God’s grace for our lives.
Grace is God’s unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor and provision in our lives. It includes His forgiveness, His mercy, His discipline (which when responded to with humility will only bring blessing and inner peace), His blessings, and His provision -for Spiritual needs, emotional needs, and physical needs, and whatever else we need, whether we know it or not.
He made us the way we are for a reason. When seen in the light of His grace, even our sins, and those of others, become reasons to rejoice!
How?
We are forgiven! God’s love for us is so incredibly deep and full that our many stumblings sway Him not at all. When we are weak -when we sin or feel tempted to sin- but instead depend on God for forgiveness and/or strength, we are strong because of Him.
“There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” -Romans 8:1.
God forgives you and wants to bless you! Don’t make it hard hard for yourself to enjoy His gift of redemption and grace by looking back on past wrongs, recent or no.
See Philippians 3:12-14 with an emphasis on verse 13.
Further, God created every single inch of you, every element of your personality, every quirk, every troublesome spot, every beautiful element of who you are. There is nothing you can say, think, or do that surprises Him. And when you take your shortcomings before Him, choosing not to let them be judged by sinful Man, and instead letting God forgive you, He not only can, but He will turn these shortcomings and sinful traits into a place of power. This is why we must depend on Him in every situation, in every moment.
But to depend on Him, you must know Him, and to know Him, you must study Him via His Word.
Every single one of us falls short of God’s perfection, believer or not. God knows this, but He loves you so much that He wants to see you joyful and victorious anyway!
How can God use our sinfulness for His Good? Well, it’s always due to Him and not ourselves. It is His power that cleanses us and guides us and makes us new.
Think of David and Bathsheba; of Jonah and the whale; of Paul with Jews when he should have been in Rome preaching to Gentiles; or Rahab the Harlot.
All of them sinned badly. All of them were made miserable by the poison of holding to their own perspective, the perspective of the world, and by avoiding turning to God and accepting His forgiveness and ultimate blessing.
When finally they did turn back to God, they grew so much and we have been fantastically blessed by their tales of faith, transgression, and confession, and the wisdom they gained upon their return to trusting God with their lives.
Not only is God’s grace magnified in their stories, not only do we learn so much about God from their God-given abilities to transcribe the Truth, but we are given a picture of God’s absolute sovereignty. He weaves even our sin into a beautiful part of the tapestry of our lives when we choose to depend on His grace, love, guidance, and forgiveness; so that in all things, in all ways, no one, no creature, no thing, can deny His amazing power, beauty, grace, and love.
Rejoice always. You are forgiven, you are blessed, you are being guided, you are enshrined in the grace of God Almighty, the keeper of all, your Heavenly Father, the One who renews His mercies toward you every morning, and rejoices over you with gladness.
Grace is probably one of the, if not the most important concept about God and the Christian life you can learn.
You are made to be who you are when coupled with the strength, courage, wisdom, and forgiveness of God. He made you for a specific and wonderful purpose, and He will lead you in the way that you should go, exalting you at the proper time.
Grace covers everything, and grace is driven by love.
