Essential Faith: Spiritually Surviving the Second WaveSample

Essential grace

Leave it to a pandemic to show me how much I need grace.

After almost 40 years of following Jesus, you would think that I would grasp the basics—love God and love people. After all, I have read the Bible cover to cover multiple times and attended over four thousand church services.

But then COVID came. And an outside observer might have questioned how much of the Scripture I actually knew. It didn’t take much effort to worry instead of trust; to critique instead of love; to act like a grumbling, wandering Israelite who forgot all about God’s salvation at the Red Sea.

How about you?

If you’re doing this plan with friends, I would love for this to be a chance to be real, to openly confess the commandments that corona has led you to break. If nothing else, I would love for you to pause right now and do an honest evaluation of your spiritual year.

But don’t stop there, because grace is essential.

Yes, your sins might have been piling up since March 2020 when our world was turned upside down. “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20).

Yes, you might have given into anger or grumbling or lust. But “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Yes, you might sheepishly admit how afraid you have been, despite your faith in Jesus. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on [Jesus] the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Yes, your sins should have put you in the danger of pushing God completely out of your life. But “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Yes, God probably should have found a new group of people to be his chosen people. But Jesus is “the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6,7).

Grace is essentially what we need. Thankfully, through faith in our Lord and Savior, grace is exactly what we have.