Grace and peace... part 2

The Lord has been putting grace on my heart a bunch recently and then last night I had the privilege of leading a small group on the topic of "peace". So I figured "Hey, I'm going to write a blog post on 'grace and peace'" only to remember that I JUST wrote one a few weeks ago. Well I have more thoughts on these two loaded words.

First of all- the Lord has been putting grace on my heart a lot the last few days. Do you ever just stop and consider the significance of grace in our lives? And how without it... we wouldn't be here? "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith..." (Eph 2:8-9) The Grace of God is ridiculous. Ludicrous. It doesn't make sense. It isn't fair. We will never do anything to deserve it. And yet it saves us. Makes us whole again. Redeems us. Reconciles us.

If we take a few minutes to consider the effect of grace in our lives, I am 100% confident that we will live out the Greatest Commandments infinitely better. How so?

If someone were to make an amazing sacrifice for you (say, giving His only Son to take your place so that He might reveal His beauty and glory to the world and allow us to know Him), would you not love Him and devote your life to Him? Would you not be beside yourself with seeking ways to please Him out of love? I'm not talking about trying to repay a debt- I'm talking about loving them because their sacrifice revealed something about their character that you can't get over. Have you ever met someone and then left feeling like "WOW. That person is unbelievable." and then you can't sit still (internally) until you just tell someone/everyone about them?! Maybe it was their generosity, or their humility, or their "sweetness" or their genuineness. Multiply all of those things times 1,000,000 and you'll *begin* to approach how awesome God is.

Grace also will cause us to "love our neighbors as ourselves" much better because, the more we consider how glorious and abundant the grace of God is in our lives, the less and less we will find the sins of others to be, especially the sins against us. When we consider the glory that we are rejecting on a daily basis, we will recognize that the faint reflection that our friends are rejecting in us (when they trespass against us) doesn't even come close to comparing to our rejection of the Lord. Then grace will abound in our lives to the world around us and people will see Jesus in us and yearn for Him. Isn't THIS what we want? To point all people to the Awesome Creator?

And "peace". Matthew 5:9 says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." What is super-cool about this verse is that, while on the surface it looks like just a call to put out 'fires' in relationships and ensure that people around you aren't fighting, Jesus is (according to the ESV Study Bible) actually referencing the Hebrew word "Shalom", which means "total well-being both personally and communally". So when He is calling us to be "peacemakers", I believe it's also (more) along the lines of us encouraging and inspiring others into that "shalom" peace- the wholeness we can have through the redemption of Christ. And if everyone is experiencing that "shalom" with God, with themselves, and with others, there won't be any fights or 'fires' to put out!

On top of that, Paul writes that if we "present our requests before God" by "prayer and thanksgiving", the "peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard [our] hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:6-7) Francis Chan writes about this in his book Forgotten God. He says that too many Christians today want 'just enough peace' to make it through the day- just enough peace to get to that deadline at work, to get through this stressful situation. But God promises that we'll have peace that "surpasses all understanding". Notice he didn't write "your understanding" or "some understanding" but "all understanding"- a peace that is so insane and extraordinary that people will look at our lives and say 'your God, He is Lord.' Is this peace being exhibited in your life? If it's not, ever stop and wonder why that is the case?

Let's live out and radiate grace and peace to the world, so that all will see that "Jesus our God is great and mighty to be praised"- 'With Everything', Hillsong United.

Truly, His glory is my reward.

Luke