God shows us grace, understandy every day
"It is by grace you have been saved."
- Ephesians 2:5 (NIV)
Several years ago, I heard a true story about someone narrowly escaping injuries from a bad accident they were in. They made the statement, "It was only by God's grace that I didn't get hurt."
At the time, I wondered what the person meant by God's grace. You may ponder what God's grace means as well. Over the years, I've come to know and better understand what is meant when God is gracious to us.
Many people think God is an angry with us and waiting to punish us for our wrongs. But that is really not God's nature. His nature is to be loving, forgiving and gracious. He blesses us many times when we don't deserve it. That's grace.
There are forces of good and evil that we deal with. God is always trying to get this through to us, so we can be directed to a better place. Sometimes wrong choices cause us harmful consequences. Other times, someone comes against us and we suffer consequences we don't deserve.
When either takes place, we need more of God's grace or power to understand and get through it. When we need protection it's because of God's grace that he protects us.
Sometimes it's still perplexing to understand how or why God's grace takes place. But I think it's one of the most positive aspects of God's love toward us.
This doesn't mean when something bad happens to us God has removed his grace, it just means he wants to use it for a higher purpose than we can understand.
To me, the greatest thing about grace is it gives us the power to overcome temptations and frustrations. When we need more power to overcome our difficulties we can ask for more of his grace.
God's grace abounds in our lives greater than we can imagine. One of my prayers of thanksgiving is to thank God for his grace. You might want to join in. Who knows, as we say a prayer of thanks to God for his grace, he may impart more grace to us.
• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, motivational speaker, life coach and nurse. She can be contacted at Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413. Invite her to be your personal life coach or speak at your church group or event.