When Strivings Ceaseமாதிரி

What good is grace, and how can it be amazing, if we still have to bring every wrong to justice by our own means?

How many times have you withheld favor from your kids, spouse, friends, or family members, believing that to give them grace is to excuse their behavior? Giving grace, when we are not Jesus, is not pardoning sin or acting as savior. It’s simply removing yourself as judge and jury and extending and communicating the very grace of God that has rescued you from being labeled hopeless, disappointing, unforgivable.

That same grace that pronounced us forgiven is the very grace we often withhold when we choose not to forgive and allow bitterness to fester.

That’s why Paul the Apostle could write, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col. 3:13 NIV).

As the Lord forgave you . . .

This begs the question: Do we actually consider how much we’ve been forgiven in Christ on a daily, moment-by-moment basis? If we were to dwell in the wonder of that forgiveness, would there be room to be simultaneously bitter and unable to forgive?

Praise God we’re never far from conflicts or hurts, big and small. I don’t even have to leave my house (hello, the year 2020) to have ample opportunities to exercise forgiveness. Forgiveness is a daily opportunity to gauge whether we are actively living into the grace we’ve been given. We know the work of grace is active and true in our lives when it not only affects the way we see ourselves and others but also causes us to act accordingly. 

And so, as those who have been won over by the kindness and patience of God and have tasted of God’s grace, we can now take that grace—the grace that moved us from God is against me to God is for me—and extend it to others.

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Rom. 12:3).

Grace doesn’t just make it possible to humble ourselves and forgive; it bids us to, on account of Christ.

Prayer

Lord, I am so thankful you have forgiven me and that your grace means I don’t have to seek justice. Thank you for your kindness and patience, and please help me to show love and forgiveness to those around me. Amen.