By Pastor Doug Cox

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV

I hope you will you take some time today to appreciate the goodness of God. By that I mean stop what you are doing, get somewhere where you can be still. Stop your mind from racing around and thinking about other things and appreciate the goodness of God. The day is coming when we will be totally convinced of that. On that day we will see His nail scarred hands and feet and we will feel His unfathomable love. There will be no doubt, not even a shadow of it, that God is good.

We can appreciate the fact that God doesn’t play favorites. He extends His abundant, extravagant and inexhaustible grace to all, to everyone, to whoever will receive it. It doesn’t matter, the background or the past performance or worthiness of a person. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God, so we all must come to Him the same way. By grace we are saved. Can you see that by offering salvation to us this way makes Him radically consistent and fair to all?

So, God offers grace, therefore grace must be received. The Greek word we get the English word grace from is charis. It deeply implies the idea that grace is a gift and a gift by definition must be received. If you can earn it, then what you are getting is a wage not a gift. If you can win it that is a prize. If you can qualify for it, it’s a reward. Oh, how we need to deeply appreciate the fact that our salvation is a gift.

Knowing this tells us why pride is such an obstacle to partaking of God’s abundant grace. Pride prefers wages, prizes and rewards. But, when a gift is offered to us, all we can do is either humbly receive it and be grateful or refuse it. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

I remember the night in 1985 I kneeled by the side of my bed. An exchange took place. I humbly gave Him all of my sinful self and He gave me His gift of grace. In a moment I became a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Had I said, Lord I will try harder to be good and try harder to earn Your approval, there would have been no change. I would have rose to my feet unsaved, but thankfully I received His gift of grace.

Friends, God cannot save you, empower you or bless you as long as His gift of grace remains unreceived. Each of us must humbly choose to receive the grace extended to us, otherwise it will remain an extended Hand you refuse to grasp. Taking hold of His Hand where you can find true satisfaction. Colossians 2:9-10 says “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Yes, God’s grace is more amazing than you think.