Hunting For Grace!

D.L. Moody said, "God doesn't seek for golden vessels and doesn't ask for silver ones, but He must have cleansed ones."

It's a common assumption that salvation is a result of good deeds. God isn't a do-right, get-right kind of God. His desire isn't that we simply follow a set of rules, but that we have a personal relationship with Him. Then, out of that personal relationship grows a desire to please God with our actions.

Jesus taught Peter this truth in John 13. It was the day of the feast of the Passover, and Jesus and His disciples were about to eat. After everyone sat down, Jesus got up and grabbed a basin from the back room. He filled it with water, tied a towel around His waist and began washing the disciples' feet.

When Peter's turn came, he refused, saying, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." He didn't feel worthy of having his master wash his feet. But Jesus replied, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

In other words, “I was sent to remove that which no other can remove and if you deny Me, you will have no part (no in-Christ salvation) with me.”

How true is it that many of us respond like Peter. We reject God's offer to make us clean because we feel unworthy. We try to do more right, hoping to make ourselves more deserving of God's love. But the truth is, no amount of good we ever do could make us worthy. I'm so glad it's not up to me to earn it, aren't you?

In John 15:16, Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." Ultimately, it's not our own choices that qualify us for God's salvation; it's the choice Jesus made to cleanse us and claim us as His that enables us to receive it.

He chooses to make us clean, not because of who we are or what we've done, but because of who He is. As a compassionate Father, God wants to cleanse and bless every part of our life, and so it's up to us to choose His love.
Sure, there will be days when we feel unworthy and are tempted to let condemnation settle in, but we must remember that His grace isn't based on our goodness; it's based on His.

If you're having a hard time receiving God's love or are wearing yourself out trying to earn it, read the bible though the revelation of God's grace. You will find that His Word opens up, in every instance, to reveal just how much you mean to Him and how much He sacrificed to bring His grace to you through Jesus.

Remember the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)? Remember how you were taught that this was a parable that demonstrated the forgiveness of God? Well, lets look at it through grace...The son goes to his father and demands his inheritance (the portion of goods that falleth to me) so that he can, well, basically go live his life like a fool (wasted his substance with riotous living). He wasted his inheritance, a famine came, and he found himself wanting to eat what the pigs he was feeding were eating... but no one would give him any.

Remember, regardless of his foolish decision, the son, remained a part of the family. Notice that at no time did the father set out to find his son. Doesn't that seem odd? The reason is that the father never saw his son as anything less that who he was when he lived with (in) him. He did not see him poor, he did not see him hungry, he did not see him riotous or foolish, he did not see him sick or depressed. He saw him only as his son. That is how God sees us in Christ.

Finally the son realized that he had been very foolish. He thought, “All my father’s hired workers have plenty of food. But here I am, almost dead because I have nothing to eat. I will leave and go to my father. I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But let me be like one of your hired workers. So he left and went to his father.” Luke 15:17-20.

Isn't that just like we once were? Running back to God, willing to work our way back into right standing as if that would make us righteous? Not realizing that all along we never were for a second any less loved than when we came to know Jesus as Lord.
The Father reacted, just like God, just like grace, never once condemning, only seeing his son. Just the same way that God sees each of us, in Christ, because of the the work of the cross and the power of His amazing grace.

Gods word is full of stories and demonstrations of His grace. Take some time to read your bible with His grace as your guide. You'll be surprised how much love you've missed!

Happy hunting!!