Grace- the Free Gift

Ephesians 2:8-9 “” For by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (NIV)

As I was praying the other day, meditating on God’s grace, a memory from my past suddenly came to me. It was Christmas 1970- a few months before I totally gave my life over to the Lord. The year before, I graduated high school and had started college and was preparing to become an elementary teacher. But having gone through a lot of personal issues I quit in my second semester.  I couldn’t find any work, was living with my parents and taking care of the home while they worked.  With no purpose in life, I felt like a failure. On Christmas eve of that year, I spied a very large box under the tree.  My mom told me I could go ahead and open it then. To my surprise and delight it was a chord organ-one of those small ones that I liked. My grandma had one and when we would visit her, I would play hers. When I saw what it was, I felt so unworthy. Here I was, no job, no direction in life, dealing with depression- and here- I received a beautiful gift, one so pleasing to me- but I felt so unworthy of such a wonderful gift. I kept telling my mom that I just didn’t deserve this great gift. But she just smiled. You could see the love in her eyes because she knew that her gift to me was something that I would really enjoy.

So, after much encouragement from her, I put the legs on it, plugged it in and began to play. To my amazement, both my mom and dad took their turns playing it. My cousin was there that evening and she played it. The next day my brothers and sisters-in-law were they and they played it.  It brought so much pleasure and enjoyment to all of us, for many years.

 As I was reliving this memory, the Lord used it as an example of His grace. We don’t do anything to earn it. We don’t deserve it. We receive it as His gift to us- because of the sacrifice that His Son Jesus Christ had bought for our salvation, our total redemption from the curse of the law brought about by Adam and Eve’s fall. I thought about the statement that I had read recently in Susie Larson’s devotional “Prepare Him Room”.  She talked about “the table of grace”.  It is spread out for us- full of His grace, love, mercy and forgiveness.  We can sit down at that table or we can stay away and be stuck in the failures, guilt and shame of our past. We have a choice. I had a choice- I could have told my mother to take the organ back because I just didn’t deserve it. Or she could have set it up and others would have enjoyed the music and singing- while I chose not to take part. It is the same with His grace. It is a gift from the Father to us. We can choose to receive it, enjoy it and then others will be blessed as well. Or we can choose to refuse it and live a miserable, unhappy life. It is up to us.

 Even after we have been serving the Lord for any length of time, often we mess up, fail and realize we are not worthy of His grace. Sometimes we don’t realize that we must continually receive it. But that is what grace is all about! There is nothing that we can do to earn it. That's why we all need Jesus! Again, we have a choice: we can sit at the table of shame, guilt and failure- constantly rehashing all our mistakes- or- we can come and dine at His table of grace, love, mercy and forgiveness. 

Are you willing to receive the free, undeserved gift of grace? To humble yourself and realize there is nothing you can ever do to deserve it? Are you willing to come to the banquet table and feast from His grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness? The choice is up to you. I hope you choose to join me at His table of grace!

 ~Donna

Psalm 23:5 “You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit, You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows.” (TPT)

 Romans 3:23,24 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (NLT)