alan and steph

This week I've had to ask myself - "How many times can I sing the most famous song in the world, Amazing Grace, but still have no idea why God's grace is really amazing?" I may be going out on a limb here - but I have a feeling that there are plenty of Christians out there that might find themselves asking the same question every once in awhile. You see - my mouth has been singing this song for probably the last 20+ years of my life - but I think it would be fair to say that my soul has never really quite understood this grace that I've sung about so many times.

With this in mind I started a Kay Arthur study this week that has already begun to shape my understanding of the grace in which I stand. You see - the word grace (used 156 times in the NT alone) in the original Greek language of the NT means "unmerited favor."
With that understanding I've been looking at this amazing grace, trying to understand what it means for my every day life. What does the "unmerited favor" of God really mean to me?

Well the answer is quite simple - EVERYTHING! The only reason why I awake each day with breath and life is because of the great favor of our Lord. Not only that (as if that isn't good enough), the fact that His grace goes beyond how much I do (in a spiritual sense) each day is so incredibly freeing. I can never be too good or too bad for the favor of God - because it is unmerited. That's the distinguishing attribute of God's grace over any other grace - it is beyond merit.

So as I continue my study of this great gift that God has lavished upon us please pray that God would reveal to me just how amazing His grace really is. My prayer is that each time I sing that beloved hymn and grow in my understanding of His grace, that the response would be three fold - it would bring glory to the only One who deserves it, that it would bring peace to my soul and that it would free me up to minister more affectively.