My parents run a homeless mission where I grew up (8th grade through high school). As you can imagine this is not the greatest place to be for a high school student but God was preparing me for something (one day I might find out what). After I graduated and moved out, I can honestly say I despised the poor and homeless. And this only grew stronger as I grew older. Part of my thinking was – my parents made $12,000/year and here I am able to get a job, go to and pay for college, get a degree and graduate, get a job, start a business, and be successful. Why can’t they just work for it?
On the other side, I also had a similar disdain for the rich church people (which was all church people). Why did they not see the needs of these people (and my parents) and help? Why did they pretend their lives were perfect and ignore the pain and suffering around them?
You see I had a mind set that “I” was doing these things or that “I” was able to see things others were not. And then God introduced me to grace.
Grace came to me one Saturday a few years back while I read God’s Word. She showed me my desperate need for a savior and how there was nothing I could do to save myself. She began to show me God’s grace throughout all of His Word. This same grace was given to Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and many more. She was there in the beginning when God chose His elect before the foundation of the world.
What I know of grace now brings me low and exalts God. The more I think upon grace the more base I am in my own sight. Don’t worry King David thought the same thing about being base in his own sight (2 Samuel 6:20-22) and so that should be understood in a similar context. Now grace includes all the gifts that God has given me and because of that I rejoice and praise His name. Everything I have comes from Him.
Yet it is still difficult to extend grace to others, even after having been given such lavish grace. So God constantly has to check me and remind me that the grace He gives me is different than what the poor and homeless are given. It is also different than the grace He gives the rich and religious too. And this saving grace brings forth a desire to serve all of God’s people throughout the nations.
Grace is a wonderful free gift. Won’t you seek this grace for your life?