Ephesians 2:8-9- For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourself, it is the gift from God- not by works, so that no one can boast.
For the last couple of weeks God has been speaking to me about grace. He has been showing me all of the grace He has extended to me and teaching me to extend that same grace to other people. I used to be walking in the darkness every day. I smoked weed for a long time, I drank alcohol only for the reason of getting drunk, I partied like a rock star, I sold drugs, and I really couldn’t tell you how many times I have promised God that I would do something and an hour later broke that promise. I am a messed up person.
These are only some of the things that I needed forgiveness and grace for. God has forgiven me for all of these things as soon as I asked Him for it. Although He forgave me, it took me a long time to forgive myself for what I had done. But through my walk with Christ, God has taught me to forgive myself when I mess up. He has taught me that I am an imperfect person and if I don’t forgive myself then guilt will just keep piling up and I will soon stress myself out about it and walk away from God because I think I am failure.
I have come to realize that the enemy loves to tell me that I failed. He does this because I used to think when I failed, God was mad at me and didn’t want to talk to me. I didn’t think I was worthy of Him at the moment so I wouldn’t talk to Him for about 3 days. But through time, God has taught me that He wants to teach me through my mistakes and extend His love to me during those times. God showed me with a couple of nails, a cross, and His son just how worthy I am to Him. He didn’t buy me with a billion dollars. He bought me with the price of His son.
As I dig deeper into the bible and study Gods word, it is very clear that Jesus extended grace to people as He walked this earth. It didn’t matter who they were or what they had done. Jesus always seemed to shock people and go against the religious attitude that so many people had when He was alive and still have today. The religious attitude I am talking about is thinking that you are better than someone else and condemning them because they have done something wrong in your eyes.
Jesus came face to face with a prostitute and gracefully forgave her. He came face to face with the people who murdered Him and nailed Him to a cross and with His last words, He gracefully forgave them. And above all else, You and I murdered Jesus and God has gracefully forgiven us! Wow… just soak that up because that is awesome!
God has been teaching me more about His word and showing me how to live a biblical life. One of the things He is teaching me is how to correct people when they need to be steered back in the right direction. However, He does not want me to condemn them as I correct them for the sin that is in their life. He is teaching me not to judge them but to have grace with them just as He has had grace with me and show them what the bible says in a loving manner.
I believe the real reason I am writing this blog is to show others to have grace with people. To my non-Christian friends, please have grace with us Christians because we are imperfect people just like you and need God’s grace to get us through this life. To my Christian friends, please have grace with non-Christians because we are just as messed up as they are. In other words, don’t condemn someone that is a murderer, a pimp, a homosexual, a thief, a prostitute, a drug dealer, etc. You have crap that you’re trying to work out in your life too. Love these people as Christ has loved the church and then they will see God’s light shining in you and through you. Also pray for these people because the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
To sum all of this up, God wants us to be walking examples of who He is and one way to do this is to have grace. He does not want us to disassociate ourselves with people who are not Christ followers. They need Christ and He has put you in this world to show them Christ. One of the ways to show them Christ is to have grace with them by not condemning them for what they do but teaching them what the bible says to do. I challenge you to have grace and pray for the next person you want to condemn.
