Published by “Can anything make me stop loving you? God asks. Watch me speak your language, sleep on your earth, and feel your hurts. Behold the maker of sight and sound as he sneezes, coughs, and blows his nose. You wonder if I understand how you feel? Look into the dancing eyes of the kid in Nazareth; that’s God walking to school. Ponder the toddler at Mary’s table; that’s God spilling his milk. You wonder how long my love will last? Find your answer on a splintered cross, on a craggy hill. That’s me you see up there, your maker, your God, nail stabbed and bleeding. Covered in spit and sin-soaked. That’s your sin I’m feeling. That’s your death I’m dying. That’s your resurrection I’m living. That’s how much I love you” (Max Lucado)
“The Strength of Love,” one of the chapters in Max Lucado’s book, Let the Journey Begin, excellently exemplifies the concept of the graciousness of God. Everything about God is based on love, and it is only by that love that each one of us is saved. God demonstrates this love by being our friend and having the grace time after time to forgive us. Even when we sin and do things that are wrong, God has the grace to forgive for one reason; God is love and because He knows we are not perfect, He loves us even more. God makes up the very aspects of being gracious because, at the very core of God, are compassion and grace. One does not have grace if they also do not have compassion.
Nehemiah 9:17 states, “…You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them.” Only a truly awesome God could have compassion and unconditionally forgive the Israelites, as well as the sinful people of this world today after what society has given Him in return for His love. It is only by the graciousness of God in each person that allows us to, in return, demonstrate the same compassion, forgiveness, and grace that God has shown.
We are truly not worthy of God’s love and grace, but because He is the Almighty God and has the power to forgive our sins, He does so simply because we are His children. Because we can’t fully comprehend the grace of God, the best we can do is to thank Him each and every day for His forgiveness and His grace.
I ask you, does God’s grace mean that because we are “on His good side” so to speak mean that we will get everything we ask? Is that what His grace means? No. God is good, and He does answer prayers. We just have to be ready to accept any answer that God might grant us, not just the one we really wish for. Being willing to accept His answer in His time means that we are allowing His grace and power to work within our lives through faith.
If you allow Him to provide answers, through grace, to the questions in your life, God shows that He has the power to transform your life and heal your sinner’s heart. God is still there and working through your life so that you may share that grace with others. When it comes down to it, God’s unconditional love and grace are so much more powerful than one can even comprehend.
