If you asked me when I was a boy, “What is grace?” I would have directed you to this ritual we practiced at the dinner table:
God is great,
God is good,
And we thank Him for this food.
In other words, “grace” was an utterance we repeated ever so briefly before we tore into the meal in front of us. It was but a mere formality to feeding our stomachs.
Later, I discovered that some people even name their girls with this designation. I thought that was cute. Still, I didn’t give much thought to grace unless a girl named Grace walked by 😊
Thankfully, the grace of God met me in my ignorance. In fact, it meets every one of us in our unbelief and unknowingness. Exiting the birth canal, we arrive on this earth as babies in great need. Yes, we need physical help. We can’t do anything on our own, well, except to soil our diaper and cry.
But our far greater and eternal need is spiritual since we are sinners. Gratefully, God meets this with His grace. For by it, we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). This is the amazing grace that John Newton writes about in the famous hymn of this same title.
Grace. It’s not simply a prayer. It’s SO much more!