Let’s Talk About God’s Grace

I think one thing we can all agree on is that we all have a past of some kind. We all have done things of one type or another that we aren’t proud of. That is okay and is part of being human. This verse tells us in black and white what God does with our past. God’s grace is so vast and so great that no matter what we have done, He can still redeem our story. Anyone can come to God with any kind of past and He has the same redemptive powers as He does for anyone else. When you accept Christ and make the decision to follow Christ, you become new in Christ’s eyes.

One of the things that is required to follow Christ is repentance. Repentance is a turning away from old ways and turning towards Christ. Repentance is not necessarily a dramatic and flowery apology to God (although it should involve an apology) and then a return to whatever the ways you are supposedly repenting from. Repentance requires an actual turning away from old ways and a turning towards things. If you don’t have both of those things, then it’s not true repentance. When repentance happens and you make the decision to follow Christ, you become a new being in Christ’s eyes.

The reason we are even able to repent and make the decision to turn from our old ways that weren’t working is because of God’s grace and mercy. God allows you to try the world’s way, see that it doesn’t work, and as long as you’re still alive, He allows you to make a different choice. God doesn’t reject you because at one point you rejected Him. God is still so full of grace to answer your prayers when you ask Him to. If you call on God, He will give you His wisdom, His strength, His patience, His joy and He will allow you to feel His love. He does all that for someone who had previously rejected Him.

That is quite a bit of grace, but God’s grace doesn’t stop there. God can also redeem your previous story by walking with Him. You need to understand that scripture tell us that God goes from glory to glory. This means that if God is working in your life then He is going to get glory from it. This means God can take your past and redeem it into a testimony that gives glory to Him. All you have to do is ask for His help in prayer, repent and have faith in His abilities. When you do call on God, please understand that you don’t need the strength in you because God will supply you with what you need.

To show you what I mean, this time last year I was miserable. I had just moved from Buffalo, NY to Connecticut and I had a nice apartment, good job, plenty of money to meet my needs and on top of that I was about to buy my first luxury vehicle. As good as all that sounds, I would never want to go back to that time. I wanted so badly to move to Connecticut that when I got the chance I started actively pushing God away in fear that He would tell me not to go. As you can imagine, when I was pushing God away I was miserable. I was constantly fearful and I had no defense against the lies of the enemy. Let me tell you something, the best defense you will ever have against the lies of the enemy is God’s truth. This is because when you put a lie against truth you will expose it for the lie that it is. When that happens, the lie doesn’t have anymore power. A lie only has power in the first place because you mistakenly believed it to be true.

When I look back at why exactly I was miserable I realize it was because I internalized some very ridiculous lies about myself and because I was pushing God away, I had no defense against those. However, God in all His grace lead me to a YouTube video by Sadie Robertson Huff where she talked about truth and lies. I love this video by Sadie because she talked about truth as God’s truth. I have never better understood how the enemy works and how scripture can be a defense until then. This video made me go back and examine these lies and put them up against God’s truth. When I did that I exposed the lies for the lies they were. At that moment, God’s word set me free and the lies ceased to have power over me. To this day, I examine every thought I have against God’s word and that has been so freeing. It creates so much less anxiety when you don’t have to constantly worry about things that are always changing and outside your control for your sense of identity. God redeemed me to be someone who feels SO much less anxiety, someone who feels calm and free. Ultimately, God redeemed me to be someone who finds their identity in being a precious and loved child of His who finds truth in His word. I am no longer shackled by my past or my thoughts of my past because I trust in the promise in God’s word that I was made a new creature when I chose to follow Christ and that is so powerful.

God’s word is crystal clear about who you are and this book has stood the test of time since the beginning of time and never changed. Scripture tells us that God knit you together in your mother’s womb and that He has purpose for your life.

There are two words that I want to draw your attention to in this verse that are key. Those two words are “in Christ”. You have to be following Christ in order to be seen as a new creature and have the old things passed away. Think of it in this analogy, let’s say God were to invite you to His house for dinner and it was going to be a dinner that would quite literally change your life. Let’s say you decide not to go to God’s house because you just don’t feel like getting ready, leaving the house and socializing with other people. The consequences of that choice would be that you would not get to have a life changing dinner with God. Be that as it may, no rational person would blame God for the consequences from that decision. I give that analogy because I want you to understand that you need to be following Christ in order to experience the transformation and redemption that this verse promises. God cannot transform someone who does not choose to follow Him.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to illustrate examples from the Bible of where God used broken people to build His kingdom. Moses was a murderer and was running from God when God chose to use him. God eventually used Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. King David who wrote the book of Psalms was all kinds of problematic. Probably the most dramatic example is Saul. Saul was persecuting Christians before God got ahold of his heart. Saul eventually became Paul and wrote most of the New Testament of the Bible.

I hope this encouraged you. I hope you walked away realizing that your story is never too far gone for God to redeem it. We sing a song in my church that I would like to quote “our sins they are many, His mercy is more”. Next time you want to reach out to God for help, know that He is ready, willing and able to help.

Until next time,

Samantha XOXO