Space for Grace

Something I’ve often heard is that if you pray to God for patience, He will provide you opportunities to learn it. This phrase has always been shared with me as a warning. I’ve even been told that it’s “dangerous” to pray for patience, because you never know what God will use to help you learn it.

I feel that God is teaching me a similar lesson with grace. Spending a majority of my time living with 14 adolescent females (regardless of culture and living conditions) is a huge challenge – and an opportunity to learn about grace.

First, I have to look at the grace given to me from God.

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Romans 5:20-21

We have the law so we can define, by humanly standards, what sin is, and then so we might become aware of our own sin. As C.S. Lewis writes, “… there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.” There would be no sense in saying that I had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God unless there was some agreement about the God’s laws.

We sin so that God has an opportunity to fill us with His grace. In a study on the book of James, Beth Moore states, “Every mistake, every sin has made a space for grace. Will it sit there hollow, or will you let God fill it up?” Now, being filled with God’s grace does NOT grant us permission to just keep on sinning. Again, Paul writes to the Romans:

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life… For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:11-14

We have sin so God can fill us with his grace. We have grace so we can be free from sin and offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. How beautiful is that? God is so cool.

And then we’re called to share that grace with others.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven times.”Matthew 18:21-22

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4:10

On Sunday, our pastor shared, “God gives grace to fulfill His purpose for us, in us, and through us.”

These girls will fall short. They will disappoint me. They will test my patience and understanding. They will baffle and annoy me. But every one of those moments is an opportunity to practice grace. It is an opportunity to show Christ’s love on a whole new level. It is not something I can do on my own, with my own selfish, worldly desires.

Father, grant me grace for my own sins, as well as opportunities to share Your grace with others.