Striving For Grace

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-13)

Grace defined in the Christian faith usually means “Unmerited Favor.” Unmerited means undeserved. It also means that we can’t purchase it or work for it because it is a gift.

The title, “Striving For Grace” may confuse you then, because if we have a free gift of grace in Christ how can I use the term strive?

We strive for grace when we grow in faith and realize that we cannot save ourselves. You may say that isn’t striving, but I would argue that this is a growing process, a process of unlearning what we think and have been told.

I’ve personally been on this journey for most of the nearly fifty-five years I’ve been living this life. I came to understand the need for salvation when I was a child. I’ve even been a minister and led others in their faith journeys. However, there are times I still struggle with my life, my shortcomings, and whether I’m good enough for this free gift of God.

One of the hardest struggles for many of us in our spiritual growth is accepting the gift of God’s grace.

Some of us have the idea that we must try to change in order to be accepted by the very God who has created us. How silly is it that we think that an all-knowing creator wouldn’t already know our broken state when he offered this gift of salvation.

So, it is time that we truly do what Paul says in Philippians, and “work out our salvation.” The work is for many of us to simply accept the gift of grace and to trust the love of God. Stop trying to earn what can’t be earned and accept the gift given.

Blessings on your journey of hope and bless others on the way.