We Must Choose To Accept God’s Grace

Rick Warren writes:

The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (NLT). You might say that grace is the gift that keeps on giving. When you get to know Jesus Christ and his grace and love, it gets better and better and better. It is available and extended throughout eternity. The best is yet to come!

What’s heaven going to be like? You’re going to be reunited with loved ones who know the Lord. You’re going to be rewarded for your faith. You’re going to be reassigned a position of work that you love to do. You’re going to be released from pain, depression, despair, shame, and guilt, and you’re going to rejoice and party for eternity. What a deal!

But there’s a catch: You have to accept it.

Imagine going home today and finding a gift on your table, but leaving it there for the next year, unopened. That would be ridiculous! A gift is worthless unless you accept it. You must accept God’s grace through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Maybe you have held off because you’re afraid of being rejected. Maybe you were rejected by your parents. Maybe you were rejected by a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and that hurt deeply. Or maybe you were rejected by a brother or sister or by classmates. Maybe you have been rejected by a former spouse who walked out on you and said hurtful things that you still think of today.

But there is one person who will never reject you, and his name is Jesus Christ. He’s saying to you, “Come home.” Have you been secretly overwhelmed by that shame in your life? You can get rid of it today. The more you understand the grace of God, the more you fall in love with God and the more you want to draw closer to Jesus—because it’s almost impossible to not love somebody who loves you that much.

Think About It

• How should you respond to God’s grace when you consider that it is a gift?
• What guilt or shame or bitterness in your past kept or is keeping you from accepting God’s grace? Have you fully released it to God?
• What does it mean to “come home” to God?

Adapted from “We Must Choose To Accept God’s Grace”