Break free from guilt and embrace the grace so freely given to you.

Pheeeeew. I don’t know about you, but I am constantly needing to be reminded of grace. I forget the grace that God so freely extends to me so easily. I am so quick to criticize myself when I mess up or forget something.

On Monday I woke up and it was 9 AM and I had forgotten to send out my weekly prayer email and that I had a scheduled podcast recording with a friend. I truly was wondering where my brain had gone. There are a lot of new things happening in my life right now and my mind was so focused on those things that I forgot about the scheduled commitments I had! Have you ever caught yourself in that situation too? Something just completely slipped your brain? Yep, you are NOT alone. Or what about you said something to your significant other, a family member, or a friend, and you wish you could just rewind a minute and have a do-over?

These are the moments where as humans, grace isn’t the first thing that pops in our head. Our initial reactions are usually criticism and guilt. The complete opposite of grace.

It says in Ephesians,

“Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood–the total cancellation of our sins–all because of the cascading riches of his grace.” Ephesians 1:7 TPT

Whoa. Do I truly hold on to this truth? Or do I forget about this? How do I remember the grace that God lavishes over me? Do you ever catch yourself asking these questions as well?

When you said yes to Jesus, His blood CANCELLED your sins BECAUSE of His GRACE.

The chapter continues,

“This superabundant grace is already powerfully working in us, releasing within us all forms of wisdom and practical understanding.” Ephesians 1:8 TPT

When we said yes, His grace immediately went to work within us.

So it isn’t that we don’t ever have access to this grace when we mess up, its that we simply forget. Why is it that we forget? Well, it’s because we probably aren’t doing the work to remind ourselves of that grace, or we may be holding back from extending that same grace to others.

This morning I read in my daily devotional New Morning Mercies, “If we are ever going to be people of mercy, we need bountiful mercy ourselves, because what stands in the way of us being a community of mercy is us.” That quote really convicted me. What is holding me back from being merciful? What is holding me back from extending grace to myself and others?

It comes down to that we are human. On our own strength we do not have the power to outpour of the grace needed. The ONLY way we can be a people full of grace and mercy is by leaning on the ONE who is grace and mercy. That requires asking God every single morning and throughout the day to fill us with His grace and mercy that as we read above, already is in us! We just need to rely on His strength and not our own to overflow with them.

Are we going to remember to do this every single day? Maybe not, again, we are human. We are going to make mistakes, but my goodness I am so thankful for the most loving God whose grace is already within me.

He doesn’t want you to be quick to feel guilty but to be quick to remember His grace.

In Psalm 103 it says,

“Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find out faults, just so that you can hold a grudge against us…Nor do you get even with us for what we’ve done. Higher than the highest heavens–that is how high your tender mercy extends! Greater than the grandeur of heaven above is the greatness of your loyal love, towering over all who fear you and bow down before you. Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset–that is how far you’ve removed our guilt from us.” Psalm 103:8-12

He wants to take the guilt we feel when we mess up, throw it out, and replace it with grace.

When we start to understand the grace that He so freely extends to us, that is when we overflow with grace to those around us.

Come to Him. Lean on His strength. Remember that in order to receive grace you simply don’t have to do anything other than open your heart and hands to it. Let His grace fill you to the brim, so we can be a people of overflowing grace to the people we come in contact with who are just as desperate for grace as we are.

Lean into His grace,

Allyson Golden