Grace

"What is grace? In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘(God) hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’[2 Cor. 5:21]"
--JI Packer

I have been reading the blog "Grace Is For Sinners" by Serena Woods. If you have never been there please go look at this girl's site! She is one of the most beautiful writers/person that I have ever seen. Her heart is amazing! Anyways, she wrote something this week that has really conflicted me.

I wont go into detail of what she writes, I think it best for you to go to her site and see for yourself what a beautiful person she is. The cliff notes version (or at least what I took from it) is that you can't accept the grace of God without being graceful with others as well.

So why does that conflict me?

The Bible says:
Bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances you have against each other. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. --Colossians 3:13

I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time with this. I am one of the worst grudge holders you will ever know. Forgiveness is not something that comes easy for me. I hold things in, stew over them, ponder over them, and just never let them go.

Take for this for instance. For years now, for reasons I will not say on here for the entire interweb to know, I have had this immense "dislike" for my friend Brandi's husband. (We'll call him "J") It's nothing that he has ever done to me personally. I just could not stand him as a person. I can't even take the time to tell you how strong these feelings were.

But then I found this:

But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in Heaven forgive your sins
Mark 11:26

So, what did I get out of all this? That I am a sinner just as much as J is a sinner. Our personalities are polar opposites, and our sins may be different, but in God's eyes a sin is a sin no matter how big or small.

So why is it I can expect God to forgive me, and not offer forgiveness, and love myself?

Well I can't. That's the point. God demands his followers to show mercy, compassion, and love. That is something I need to learn to do. And I feel God pulling me to start with J. Isn't it funny that sometimes God pulls you to do the one thing you never want to do?

Now, I'm not saying that me and J are now Best Friends Forever, and will live happily ever after. What I am saying is that I feel like I owe it to my savior to make a conscious effort to forgive.

Can you think of a better way to show another person God's love?