What exactly is so amazing about grace anyway? I have been wanting to share about this book for awhile now…but for some reason kept forgetting! So…I’ve been reading this book for awhile now. It is very meaty and I have only read a chapter here and there to try and take it all in. I have to go back and read portions again, and again, because the Lord is really ministering to my heart through this book.
Here is what Amazon has to say about the book What’s So Amazing About Grace?
Mention the word “grace” and what immediately comes to mind for most of us is a bagpipe wailing the solemn notes of “Amazing Grace.”
The grace of which Philip Yancey writes is the freely given and unmerited favor and love of God. This grace seems a remote, almost sentimental concept, without a place in our lives or our society. It is a vague, slippery thing to us, probably because we seem to experience grace so rarely and have managed to leech the word of meaning. But Philip Yancey has set about to rescue grace in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace?
This grace is the true message of Jesus. All faiths have virtues and creeds and justice and truth, but Jesus speaks merely of receiving the love that God has for us. Accepting it, not earning it or making ourselves worthy of it. And frankly, accepting something we have not earned or are not worthy of is not an easy thing for most of us.
In truth, grace is both utterly simple and utterly confounding. Little by little, Yancey guides us into a clearer understanding of grace by using stories, in much the same way Jesus did. We read stories of both grace and ungrace at work in people’s lives. Sadly, it is stories of ungrace that are more prevalent today, the current culture wars painful acknowledgments of ungrace in our lives as Christians in this country. Yancey helps us understand that ungrace is that state of being in which self-righteousness and pride are a result of thinking that we have somehow earned God’s approval and may now stand in judgment in his behalf.
I, personally feel that the word grace has been so talked about that we have lost the importance of the word. The world has cheapened grace, if you will. I think this book will open your eyes to all that grace IS and all that grace SHOULD BE in our lives. This book has changed my view of grace in many areas as well.
I think that alot of us who grew up in the church, who grew up in Christian families sometimes lose sight of the depths from which we come. A lot of us don’t have the movie-line testimonies that some do. Many of us that didn’t live a life of sinfulness for years and years before coming to Christ are *almost* at a disadvantage sometimes. (Of course it is also a blessing at the same time!) However, I sense a lack of grace in so many of us who haven’t had that huge transformation in our lives…we’ve known of Jesus and have been reading the Bible for years. We became Christians as children. All of that can be good…but.
Sometimes I think for me, it took God taking me into the valley of depression…into the depths of a place that I never thought *Christians* would go for me to see the full extent of grace…not only in my own life but in the lives of others. Having been in a place where I felt so far from God has allowed me to see how far truly all of us have come! Some of us just don’t see it as easily as others. I am learning that often it takes heartache for our eyes to be opened. I have come to be so thankful for the valley that I have been through (and the ones I know will come) because they have given me glimpes of life when you can’t see Jesus. Walking through the valley is making me more like Jesus in so many ways. Being in the valley has given me a glimpse of what it looks and feels like to be judged unfairly. And well, isn’t that what Jesus faced? If only I could handle it with the grace that He did.
Not only have I learned what it feels like to be judged…but God has shown me how I used to be that judge as well. Ouch. He has shown me how far He has brought me…He has shown me how a lack of grace in my own life has distorted my view. It doesn’t feel good…and I know a part of that lesson is learning that everyone has a battle to fight.
We truly never know what someone is going through…we never know when we might be talking to someone who is truly dying on the inside. We don’t know that the person who is at the check-out counter at the grocery store has just lost her husband. We don’t know if the person we are sitting next to in church just had his wife walk out on him. We don’t know if the mom in the park just received a phone call that her sister is dying of cancer. You can’t look at someone and know they struggle with depression or anxiety or bipolar. We just don’t know.
But grace. Oh, grace. Extend grace. Compassion. Mercy. Show grace. Love. How God has shown me that we need to love unconditionally those around us. Have I figured all this out? No. Do I have it down perfectly? No. But these are just a few things that God has been showing me. I am so quick to get offended sometimes because of how someone treats me…but have I stopped to think about the battle they are facing? Have I stopped to consider their hurts and what made them just snap at me? It’s hard…but God is showing me how much He wants me to become like Him in this way…to love freely. To show grace uncondtionally.
Grace has changed my life. Grace has a way of changing everything. All is grace.
What IS so amazing about grace? What do you think? How has grace changed your life?
{repost from 2009 when I first read this book}
3 Years Off of Anti-Depressants
I would love for you to read an update now that I have been off all of my anti-depressants for 3 years and am thriving. God has been so good to me. My mindset has changed. My health has changed. We are never truly hopeless if we have Christ. We have the power of the Holy Spirit living within us giving us the power to make the steps necessary to BE TRANSFORMED.
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