Constant Grace

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.   For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
    and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. - 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

You know the way toddlers walk with shaky uncertainty. A little drunk on the whole idea of being upright and able to move about. They’ve waited for this moment their whole life. The wait is over.

Stepping out after a time of waiting can be scary yet exciting at the same time. We do not always know how to walk. Sometimes we walk so far out into a space only to finally look around and realize we are alone and tired with no safety anywhere around us. But right there is where, if we stepped out in faith from the beginning with that first step, grace greets us.

For whatever reason God had placed you in a time of waiting, to grow in strength, to heal or deal with sin, or whatever the reason we can trust He prepared us during those times. When God invites you out of the waiting His grace sustains us. Grace is the overflowing favor of God.

Overflowing is not just full to capacity, it is trickling over and slightly extravagant. It overflows into all those spaces we so confidently walked into but did not have the foresight to remember we are human flesh and bone prone to tiredness. We forget ourselves, which is so good, so in the image of Jesus Christ, good. If we never forgot ourselves we would never take a step in the first place.

When we forget ourselves we become less and God becomes more. This grace is the strength that lifts us up when we are grasping at air. Drawing on His grace, we find even in humiliation we manifest His grace. But grace is a gift and gifts have to not only be received but opened up and actually used.

It is a waste or as the verse above claims, “in vain” to say, “no not right now, or no not this way.” God’s way and God’s time. God offers His grace now. His constant, right here, right now, Grace.