Seeing God's Grace

Ben sat on the sidewalk holding his hat upside down with a few bills spilling over. I wasn’t in the mood to meet a stranger, but the prompting to speak with him was so strong that I walked over. Before long we were sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk. He spoke of abuse, job loss, addiction, and busted up relationships. He had tried to do the right things but said he kept failing God. I too have tried to do the right things to achieve favor with God. It’s a lifeless path.

Humans are hard wired to want to earn their way. It can be difficult to see God’s grace.

Christianity is unique from all other religious systems in that God reaches down to save humanity instead of humans reaching up to God. Romans 3:22 says, “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done” (NLT). Romans 3:28 says, “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law” (NLT). Christianity calls us to trust Jesus, to believe we are saved by Jesus, and to put our faith in Jesus. Jesus really did do it all.

Ben said He didn’t believe God could forgive him. It can be difficult to receive a gift so great.

Before I left, I felt God encourage me to tell Ben that God sees Him. As I did, he looked up at me with bright blue tear-filled eyes and said, “This morning, when I looked in the mirror, I asked God to show me that he sees me.”

God saw Ben.

And God helped Ben to see God’s Grace.

Written by: Kaitlyn Cey Kaitlyn is a Pastor, Educator and Certified Leadership Coach. Kaitlyn lives in the beautiful city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and she is passionate to see people live in hope, grow and flourish through the transformational power of the Gospel. You can find her and resources at www.kaitlyncey.com