by Benjamin Fech
Every morning when I get up and talk to God, one of my first phrases is “Thank you God for this day, for your mercies are new every morning”. I have been praying this every day for years because it helps me to turn my eyes away from myself to the cross.
Grace is a gift and cannot be earned, but I only understood that when I came to faith in Jesus. I had a beautiful childhood, but my image of God was shaped by the fact that I had to earn God’s love. There were times when I prayed a lot and read the Bible and had the feeling that God loved me more, but then there were also times when I completely failed in my understanding and felt unworthy to come into God’s presence. I think we all know that feeling. I had the image of a punishing and merciless God and often felt like I deserved to suffer or be depressed because I had sinned.
But when I had an encounter with Jesus in my room 10 years ago and came to faith, I was able to understand for the first-time what grace means. Grace means that my punishment has been remitted and I am forgiven. Jesus took my guilt and punishment upon himself on the cross and his blood still flows today for every sinner who repents and comes to his throne of grace.
Lamentations 3,22-23:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. (NIV)
The reality is that accepting grace is determined by what image of God we have. The truth, however, is that God is gracious and faithful, and He offers us a fresh start every day.That means no matter what happened yesterday or in the past, no matter how you feel right now, you get to start over today. Isn’t that wonderful news? Your pain, your illness, your problems, your negative thoughts do not determine what your future will look like, but you can start again today. And even if I have a bad day, that’s just the way it is, but I go to sleep with the certainty that I can start again tomorrow and try again.
Grace is a gift, but we also must receive it. And how do we do that? By coming before the cross in prayer and praise and showing him that we are completely dependent on him.
Hebrews 4,16:
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV)
References:
New International Version (NIV)