Undeserved Grace

When was the last time you came face to face with your sin before the Lord? When was the last time you were really broken and really convicted by some sin or any sin in your life? It happened for me in a very real way while on mission for the Lord in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. There was sin. There was deep conviction. There was brokenness and humiliation. There was repentance and confession.

It is easy for me to preach about grace because I have needed and received so much of it from the Lord and the Lord's people. None of us deserves grace. It is a precious and amazing gift. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast."

When broken down to is simplest definition grace means "unmerited favor." God's glorious grace that has been lavished out on us cannot be earned, achieved, or bought. The only means to of partaking of it are to receive it by faith. Most of us can wrap our minds about needing grace to be saved in the first place. How many of us contemplate how much we need grace day by day?

At heart each of us are depraved sinners who are in a constant battle with our sin nature. More often than any of us would like to admit that sin nature takes over and we find ourselves not only in need of forgiveness but also in need of undeserved grace. Praise the Lord for Jesus who not only forgives but showers us with grace. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavishes on us..." [Eph 1:1-7-8a]

My task in simple. Since I have received so much undeserved grace in my own life I am to follow the pattern of David in Psalm Fifty One. "Restore to me the jou of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to you."