Monday, May 14, 2012

Abundant Grace

The other day when I was leaving the grocery store, I realized that I couldn't find my keys. That was the first time that I've lost my keys, and it was a terrifying feeling. When I walked back in the store and asked if anyone had turned in a set of keys, mine were quickly returned to me. I left thanking God for His abundant grace in allowing me to find my keys. Truly, it is more than I deserved.

But as I was driving away, I was so convicted by a thought. If I had not found my keys, it would have been just as much by the grace of God. He is good and He does good (Psalm 119:68) and because of Christ's finished work on the cross, He has promised that everything He does is for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28). As a result, I experience nothing that is not given to me by the sovereign grace of God. And yet, I often give Him praise only for what I consider "good" things that I experience.

The good things in life, like finding my keys or a getting a new job, are easy to give praise for. I'm grateful for the Lord's provision. But when I lose my keys for real or am faced with anything else that was not in my plan for my life, I often resort to crankiness and frustration and ask the Lord why He allowed that to happen. The truth is, though, that even those things that frustrate my plans are by His grace because of Christ.

If He is indeed sovereign, He is not just sovereign over the "good" things in my life but also over the "bad" things. And though I often have a negative perspective of so many things I experience, I think that if I really and truly understood what I have gained in Christ and what the sovereignty of God actually means, I would see everything that I experience is by His grace, and by His grace alone. The bad things that I experience are actually good things in light of these truths.

Because all of my life is under His loving rule and reign, every experience is by His abundant, extravagant grace.

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