Reaching Grace

Amazing Grace isn’t just a song we sing; it is a truth to live.  Grace is what God applied to the great gap between who we think we are and who God knows we can become. Grace is the purest form of love.  Grace is the One who always acts for our best, bringing a life we can’t know any other way.

We talk about reaching out to God, but before the thought ever formed in our minds, God has already been reaching out to us. 

It is not the distance from the earth to heaven that is our biggest problem. It’s our push to live life by our own efforts. We try harder, pray harder, and try harder to do good. We reach and reach farther.

But when we are honest, we know we have a reach problem.  Our world tells us to reach for ourselves. But God says our arms aren’t long enough. We need His.

Think of someone pulling you back from the edge of a cliff so you won't fall. Think of someone throwing you a lifeline when you swam too far from a safe shore. Think of someone carrying you out of a burning house. Those are all pictures of God’s reaching grace.

It’s just that we don’t think we get too close to the cliff or swim too far away or live in burning houses. Our ignorance doesn’t see the grace; our ignorance sees intrusion.

Or we think grace is a one-time vaccine against sin. We don’t understand that we need the everyday reaching grace of God.

Every day grace is God   . . .

• ·reaching out to us with His offer to help when something is out of our control.

• reminding us that we were created in His image when we are tempted to say or do something that does not reflect Him.

• inviting us to an Eden walk where God will never shame us when we need a warning or reprimand.

• reaching to save us from the self-destruction our stubborn self-will causes.

• reaching us with persevering love, reminding us that He does not give up on us. Not ever!

  
  

On days when we come up short with unfinished lists, unmet needs, unresolved issues, grace waits to hold us, restore us, and especially remind us that when we are not enough, God is. We can live every day in the anchored understanding that we have been rescued by God’s reaching grace, to live a life we could not design.

As we take our journey to the cross, think about  God’s reach for you. Consider how even the thought to reach toward God is a grace-implanted thought of God reaching out to you. Let your needy heart find true safety in God’s incomparable, undeserved, never-failing reach for you. Then, live there.

Only as we welcome God’s amazing grace to reach us, protect us, grow us, and empower us can we know how amazing God's grace really is.