In the past few months, I have struggled with two maladies that I thought I had conquered. Several years ago, I had a war with viral bronchitis that lasted six months. There were times I coughed and wheezed so hard and long that I thought it would be my last breath. Finally, through the grace of God, I was spared. Another time, I had a trigger finger that plagued me for nearly a year and was finally cured by gratitude, prayers and faith. That healing too was a gift of grace. I don’t know why those two maladies came at the same time, except to remind me that I am not far from the grace and mercy of my Savior, and gratitude should never be on the back burner.
Grace, like gratitude, is a power that rescues us from despair and ruin. Jesus extends it to us daily, but we must through gratitude reach to receive it. Gratitude is the only way we recognize the continued grace of the Savior. So many times we attribute healing to a doctor’s prescription. We attribute our change of circumstances to the light of a new day and not the merciful hand of the Savior. We readily laud the hand of coincidences for our success instead of God’s hand reaching down to save us.
Sometimes mercy gets tangled up with grace. We think they are synonymous. Jesus certainly has mercy on the sinner, and his mercy led him to the cross, but mercy does not encompass all of grace. It is only a small part. Mercy is the opposite of justice. Justice is the hammer that exacts a punishment equal to the crime. In other words, justice says if you kill, you must receive the same punishment. Mercy says, if you accidentally kill, there are extenuating circumstances and punishment must be meted out differently. Mercy is a feeling or an attitude we need to aspire to and incorporate into our lives if we are to become true Christians, but grace is different.
Grace encompasses mercy, but it is so much more. I have come to understand that grace is the enabling power of Jesus Christ. John Newton, in his beloved hymn “Amazing Grace,” gives us an image of this enabling power.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
'Twas grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Newton was on a ship being tossed violently against the terror of the raging storm. He cried for mercy but was given grace. He witnessed a miracle of the waves and the wind being calmed and the sweet spirit of God resting on his soul. He was saved, both physically and spiritually, from destruction. He recognized God in a new and powerful way. He could no longer be passive about his belief. Grace enabled him to become a new person with new spiritual eyes. He had witnessed the grace of God firsthand.
Grace is the power behind miracles. As Moses stood at the edge of the Red Sea and lifted his staff to the sky to part the rolling waters, he had faith the Lord would hear his prayer and part the waters, but it was the grace of the Great I Am that caused the waters to rise like towering walls at his command. The Lord’s grace enabled Moses and the children of Israel to see the miracle and build faith enough to step onto the dry seabed.
Queen Esther was blessed by the grace of God as she stood before the king to speak to him when the law forbade such an action. The Jews showed faith as they fasted and prayed for her to have the power in the presence of the king to save her people. The enabling power of grace changed the circumstances in favor of the Jews. Esther was the instrument of grace in the hands of God.
Joseph, languishing in prison for a crime he did not commit, probably pleaded for mercy daily for the Lord to free him. The Lord did not free him, but by his grace, he sent the baker and the butler, who eventually provided the miracle of Joseph’s release. The grace of God allowed Joseph not only to free himself but to save the entire land in the face of a famine. The same grace allowed him to see clearly enough to recognize the hand of the Lord in his life and to forgive his erring brothers.
By the grace of Jehovah, David stood with unflinching courage, without armor, before the colossal giant Goliath to save the Israelite armies from bondage. The miracle of a shepherd boy saving Israel changed David and all who have read, and will yet read, the story of the weak standing victorious in the face of the mighty because of the grace of God.
In our modern world, we need grace, or the enabling power of God in our lives. The world is upside down, where evil is called good and good is branded evil. How do we obtain the awesome power of grace in our lives? The scriptures are instructive: If we study the lives of heroes in the Bible, we find that all fostered a relationship with God. They were people of prayer, fasting and faith. They reached out with the power of their faith and waited upon the Lord to answer in their hour of need. It was not a one-time prayer for mercy and deliverance. It was heart-wrenching prayer stacked upon prayers that made the difference. It was a continuation of daily reaching heavenward that brought the miracle of grace.
It is interesting how my prayers changed when my two most-hated maladies returned. I knew what I had to do and how I must pray, but habit had kept me proud – too proud to really ask. I was busy, too busy. Family reunions, gardening, quilting, grandkids – I had my list. When I became really sick, I prayed better prayers. They were more than grocery lists of token thank yous. They were heart-wrenching pleas from a suffering soul, who knew that grace was forthcoming but undeserved.
Adversity is a teacher, a hand reaching out through the murky darkness. We close our eyes and scream in agony instead of lifting our eyes to grasp the grace of His outstretched hand. We wallow in pity without recognizing there is an exit. Sometimes grace doesn’t come right away because there is something we must learn or some purpose the Lord needs to accomplish. Joseph spent 12 or 13 years in Egypt praying to be reunited with his family before God’s purpose was accomplished.
For Newton, one heartfelt prayer seemed to be enough in the moment of crisis, but we don’t know all his story. Perhaps, it was not just one prayer of faith in a terrible storm that drew the grace of God to Newton. Perhaps, in his life as he faced the injustice of being forced to serve in the Royal Navy humbled him enough to search for help in the right place. Many wait for a moment of crisis to learn to petition for God’s grace. He answers every prayer, but sometimes we don’t recognize the answer. It is better not to wait for a crisis in the face of a storm to understand and embrace the enabling power of grace. We must seek it daily and express our gratitude when it comes, no matter how small or delayed the answers may seem. God is not far away. We create the distance between God and ourselves by indifference to His laws and the way we clutter our lives with trivial matters. The amazing grace of God is waiting for us all. We must reach out in faith and gratitude to have it bless our lives.
