Have you ever thought about how God's unconditional love and unmerited favor which is also known as God's grace is not contingent upon any conditions or strings or works?
It is merely a free gift from Him that we do not deserve but He gives it to us freely out of love. God gives us grace and unconditional love based on HIs love for us. Not what we can for Him, but out of agape love God bestows it freely so no one can boast about it.
God's love and grace are unleashed upon us as a free gift through faith.
Moreover, out of His unconditional love and grace, we have been raised to life through and with Christ the result of Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead three days later.
And we get to have eternal life. This is just astonishing and blows my mind that I just want to sit here and bask in how we get to receive this wonderful gift from God even though we do not deserve anything.
Thus, grace is a gift from God by which we have been saved through faith. Just sit here with me a moment to take this in. God's grace is immeasurable and infinite.
Plus God's unconditional love is unending and unfailing. This means we do not have enough rope to measure how far or how long God's grace and love go. His grace is also a display of glory because we are not only raised with Christ we are seated in the heavenly places with Him because he defeated death itself.
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."(Ephesians 2:4-10ESV).
God unleashed His unmerited favor and unconditional love upon us out of pure love and holiness. How staggering is that? To think the God of all creation poured out His immeasurable love, His unending grace on us because He wants to is quite breathtaking.
No human being can ever love us or show us grace in this capacity or depth. God is the one who keeps loving us even when we ignore or are stubborn with what He calls us to do. He is the one who keeps choosing us even when we do not choose ourselves.
Yet, even when we count ourselves out God is the one who calls us out from hiding to confront the sin we are missing or trying to bypass. God is also the one who tracks us down to get us to face our fears when no one else will.
The point is no human being has the capacity to unleash this kind of love and grace on another human being because it is humanly impossible. Although God is the one who fills the gaps and the spaces that no one else can.
Until we understand and focus our expectations on the limitless possibilities of what God can and will do. And stop putting false expectations on people that are finite with limitations we will keep tripping over these stumbling blocks of unrealistic expectations.
Furthermore, until we stop and see that the fulfillment we need and crave comes from the fulfillment of God's love and grace being poured out upon us by God alone. We will continue to fall into the trap of trying to entangle ourselves with false fulfillment from the wrong places instead of seeking God first.
As a reminder, our fulfillment and identity are in Christ alone. Everything else will fall away. Money will not last nor will fame or titles, nor earthly treasures.
Yet, heavenly treasures in Christ are what lasts and never fades. Our identities are not in work or roles or statuses but in the work of Christ Jesus who died on the cross for us and was raised to life.
See God's grace and love is available to everyone who accepts God's salvation through faith. And it is a free gift open to everyone because God does not want anyone to perish.
Thus, we do not have to stay within the mindsets of stumbling blocks, unrealistic expectations, or negativity. We have the unmerited favor of God and His unfailing love to be poured out upon us to raise us up out of the pitfalls we fall into.
God calls us out to stand in truth and to step out of pitfalls, stumbling blocks, and false truths, by pouring ourselves into the word of God. And also by learning what the whole truth is from the source.
However, to break free from stumbling blocks, we have to turn away from sin and old mindsets to renew our minds. If we do not turn away from sin we will keep going back to old patterns that do us no good but only distract us from God's truth.
Thus, by soaking in the gift of God's grace and His unfailing love we will be able to renew our minds because God's love and grace is in us. And we will have the truth inside of us.
Although I cannot quite get over the fact that we have been saved through faith and given the free gift of grace and how God unleashes it upon so lavishly. Just blows my mind how good God is. It also blows my mind away at how God has saved us through Christ's doing and not our own doing.
Let me also clarify that, yes God created us for good works, but doing good works alone without faith will do us no good and will not get us to heaven. So just being a good person will not save us or give us eternal life. Only Jesus can save us and give us eternal life.
Also, no amount of self-love will get us into heaven because when we are self-focused we become self-righteous and hypocrites.
Furthermore, the ability to love and show grace to others as God calls us to do by loving our neighbors comes through the power of Christ that is within us. If Christ is not within us this power is not within us. The two go hand in hand. The grace of God goes along with His love just like the rest of His characteristics.
God unleashes His grace and love upon us
God's grace is a gift, not something we earn
God's grace and love is immeasurable
God is limitless
References:
English Standard Version Study Bible (2008) Crossway Publishing, Wheaton ILL,
Picture by: wix.com
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