Grace

I’m amazed at how often we live our lives oblivious to God’s Presence. How much joy and peace we forfeit because we forget that He is near. Unfortunately, most of us are rusty when it comes to practicing God’s Presence. We aren’t well-versed in the language of prayer. We miss the very Presence of God because we expect some pie-in-the-sky, touchy-feely kind of experience when His Presence is already ours. We must simply claim it by faith through Grace.

There is a little nugget of a verse in James that says this: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (4:6). Pride is a major obstacle to seeing God’s Grace in your life. You may think you don’t need His Grace. Or you may think Grace is for the weak people who need it more than you do.

Do you think the apostle Paul was weak? Yet he tells of his experience with Grace in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

God allows us to be weak and needy in order to reveal His Grace to us. Paul was suffering a thorn in his flesh when he wrote these words about Grace. He prayed persistently for freedom from it, but God’s solution for Paul was not relief from the thorn, but Grace for the road.

If God is humbling you right now, rejoice. A breadcrumb of His Grace may be headed your way! God longs to be gracious to us. It’s His Nature to give Grace. As we remain in the place of humility God will see us through to a place of Grace.

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Adapted from Still Standing: Following Jesus Even When It Hurts by Lina AbuJamra. Copyright © 2024 by Lina AbuJamra. Reprinted with permission of Moody Publishers. All rights reserved.