Celebrating God's Scandalous Grace

There are many things in my life that I am truly grateful for.  But most of all I'm supremely grateful for God's grace!  It is such a lavish gift... one He's been reminding me of on a fairly regular basis over the last few months.

I have mentioned before that my past is not something I'm proud of in any way.  I spent 9 years trapped in addiction, and it's taken 5 years to get out of it.  For much of the last 14 years I've been striving to make up for the things I was doing wrong.  I felt I was disappointing God, letting Him down.  I believed that I had to fix myself, to clean up my mess before I could know God.  And the more I attempted to stop what I was doing and get out of my addiction, the more I lost hope, becoming convinced I could never do anything good.

And the reality was... I couldn't...  As long as I was focused on changing my behavior, I had no hope.  But God intervened with His scandalous grace (a phrase borrowed from this week's sermon at church).  He faithfully reminded me time and again that I don't have to earn forgiveness.  A relationship with Him is not about "doing"  because it's already DONE!  As Pastor Joel said Sunday, making up for the bad things I have done has already been accomplished for me!  Jesus did that through his life, death, and resurrection.  All that crap got wiped away the first time I asked God to forgive me.  All that was left was for me to believe it.

But God's grace doesn't end there; it's a never-ending fountain that flows through my life on a daily basis.  It not only covers my past sins, but it is there to give me the strength to walk in freedom... and to pick me up when I fall.  I can't even begin to describe the gratefulness and joy with which I celebrate each day of walking in freedom and victory.  I've been keeping track of the days (I'm up to 44) on my calendar-- not as a source of pride in my accomplishment, but as a monument to God's grace and faithfulness.  It's my version of Samuel's "ebenezer" ("Thus far God has helped me").

The most amazing thing about God's grace is that He offers it to everyone.  There's no one in the world who doesn't need it.  And there's no one in the world who can't have it.  No matter who you are, you probably feel like there's something in your life you need to make up for.  Wouldn't you like to know that the "making up" part is done?  To know freedom from guilt and shame?  That's what God offers through His grace...  All you have to do is accept it.