GRACE!

None is righteous, no not one.  Romans  3:10

My Mama used to love to find words with which she was unfamiliar and research their origin and meaning.  I think she would have loved a word which I happened to run across this week, Atelophobia.  Atelophobia means fear of not being good enough.

How many of us spend our lives thinking that we are not good enough to be the recipients of all God’s blessings, and love for us?  We simply can never be good enough to justify all He has given us.  So, instead of spending our days punishing ourselves for not being good enough, what if we just took each day and looked at it as God’s gift of grace and began to see His grace in all the things around us?

Grace is defined as the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it not necessarily because we have done anything to earn it. I like the abbreviated version which says Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. (copied)

What kind of person lives seeing the grace in everything?  This is the kind of person who sees grace all around them every day and daily sees grace in the good and the bad.  Miss Dorothy Summerour was that kind of person.  No matter when you called her or asked how she was doing, she would always say, “We do just fine over here”.  She never seemed to have a bad thing to say. and she saw everything in every day as God’s grace in action.

In this world of tragedies, viruses, fires, hurricanes, political and social unrest, and everyday stress, there is always grace.  Grace comes all the time and in the most normal of days.  It comes as a long time friend who calls just to check on you to see if you need anything and if your family is okay.  It comes from a neighbor who just wants to be sure you still have electricity after a storm. It’s grace when a friend sends a meal or a card in a time of grief.  Grace comes in the face of a service man, fire fighter, police officer, EMT, nurse, doctor, who are there when they are most needed.  All this and many more examples should be labeled as grace in our lives.

Grace in our lives can be a game changer.  It can take us from what we once were to what we can be.  I never will forget a scene that played out on the steps of our first church in the little community of Starrsville, Ga. in 1976.  Randy’s Daddy had come to visit and attend church that day.  As the people greeted him and told him how happy they were to have us there, his Daddy replied to their kind words by saying,  “Thank God for His grace.  There was a time when Randy’s Mother and I were worried he might end up in prison!”  A bit of a stretch, but a testimony to God’s grace none the less.

Grace is the key to the Christian faith. If it weren’t for grace none of us could qualify for heaven for there is not one of us who is good enough. Our problem comes because even though we might believe in the theory of grace, most of us have trouble believing that God will forgive us. We cling to our guilt instead of letting it go and letting God’s grace take hold. Randy’s Grandmama used to say that she would take all her problems to the altar and give them to God in prayer. Then, before she left, she would grab them all up again. It’s hard to leave our problems and fears, but Grace makes it possible.

Instead of walking around this week trying to pronounce the word, Atelophobia, and wrestling with the fear of not being good enough, why not use the week to look around and see the grace God is pouring out all around us even in the midst of all our problems?

This hymn describes the Christian doctrine of faith and justification by faith, the title is: Grace Greater Than All Our Sin, and the third stanza is: Marvelous, infinite matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe; You that are longing to see his face; Will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, Grace, God’s Grace; Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, Grace, God’s Grace, Grace that is greater than all my sin. Julia Johnston