Grace: The Gift We Didn’t Earn

“My grace is sufficient for you.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

Most of us are used to earning things.

We work, and we get paid.
We practise, and we improve.
We put in the effort, and hopefully we see the results.

And sometimes we carry that same thinking into our relationship with God.

If I’m good enough…
If I pray enough…
If I get my act together…
If I become the person I think God wants me to be…

Then perhaps God will be pleased with me.

Grace turns all of that upside down.

Grace begins not with what we have done for God, but with what God has given to us.

It is gift.

We don’t achieve it.
We don’t earn it.
We receive it.

And maybe that is harder than it sounds.

Because receiving grace means admitting that we cannot do everything ourselves. We come to God as we are, unfinished, imperfect and still learning, and discover that we are welcomed anyway.

So today, perhaps you can stop trying quite so hard to prove yourself.

Take a breath.

Open your hands.

And receive.

Grace is gift. And the gift is for you.

Carry this today

I do not have to earn what God freely gives.

Prayer

God of grace,
thank you that I don’t have to prove myself to you.
Help me to receive your grace today
and to let that grace shape the way
I see myself and the people around me.
Amen.