God blesses those who offer grace

Says a biblical commentator that "extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment for extraordinary sins, sometimes they are tests for extraordinary graces." The Christ who never sinned, became sin and suffered in body, spirit and soul the most extraordinary affliction to leave us his infinite grace, wonderfully incalculable, endlessly amazing, eternal, perpetual. Incomprehensible grace, a gift that extends to hands that do not deserve it.

So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us when we need it most. Heb 4.16

My most beautiful memory of the church of Jesus Christ dates from the day I dared, desperate, to push the fence that separated it from the worldly subculture. Deep wounds, like those produced by the sharp knives of the world. God is too big for me, I don't deserve it, I've been a miserable garment of false pride, and here I am… searching. Looking for? I don't think I had a correct concept of Christ, so I didn't go looking for Christ, but a little grace; a look of compassion, a contact with the unknown spiritual universe that would ease my pain. Maybe something will happen there. I need it. A man wasted by sadness is something serious. Someone approached me, put a hand on my shoulder without knowing me and invited me to enter with kindness and compassionate gestures. And grace was visible in many eyes and hands around me until it became a welcoming embrace, unexpected, needed, longed for.

Then I knew I was in the right place. It was my first encounter with grace and I will never forget it. “… The grace of our Lord has been poured out on me in abundance, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 1.14)

We are not given to provide grace. It is easier to murmur, to judge and condemn, than to show mercy. Since we were children, we hear adults say that people have what they deserve. If you have been a thief, your absolute destiny is jail; if a prostitute, to live eternally a slave of the pimp and the humiliation of men. We do not administer grace, we do not manage it, but we like to receive it; we leave people to their own devices. We prefer to be content within our Christian subculture, where we all think alike, where no bad words are spoken and everyone pursues the same goals. No, no, grace is only for the brothers of faith, and may the Lord take care of others.

But God thinks differently. He wants us to offer grace, especially to that thief, or that prostitute that we would like to stone because they say "bad tongues" that he cheated on his spouse. We are like the Pharisees, whose first intention is to throw the stone. We all, without exception, need grace and that is why God blesses those who are always willing to give it away. The world is in need of grace, a fresh grace that does not come directly from heaven, but from our hearts, from our eyes and hands. The graceless Christian forgot his past without Christ.

Why so many Bibles, so many seminars if you don't carry a handful of seeds of grace in your saddlebag and you spread them around the world. The best apologetics - defense of our faith - is love, and grace is love's cousin. If you don't ask King David, Job, Nicodemus, the prodigal son in the parable or the evangelist Matthew, who before following Jesus was a miserable tax collector for the enemies of his people.

God blesses the one who imparts grace in the name of Jesus. My affliction was extraordinary, my sin extraordinary, but His grace broke the affliction and blotted out the sin. And all for a human embrace clothed with the most sincere grace offered in the name of Jesus.

If you love the Lord, pay more attention to your heart and dress yourself with grace. Grace for the neighbor who does not let you sleep with his nocturnal scandals, grace for the other neighbor's wife who some say is a gossip, for the child who screams in the doorway and does not allow you to concentrate on the task, grace for the drunkard to whom you have not yet approached to tell him about Jesus. The author of Hebrews says that “it is fitting that the heart be strengthened by grace” (Heb 13.9). Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that when you give freely, you receive freely.

God bless your Word!