Each of our children have a special name. Our youngest daughter’s middle name is Charisse. Charisse comes from the Greek root word charis, meaning grace. She will always be my reminder of God’s grace to me. My pregnancy with Olivia Charisse was challenging. A pandemic, moving states, a new job position, and my body often in pain made those nine months difficult. On top of all this, I felt I had to constantly prove myself competent, capable, hardworking and trustworthy. I needed to earn people’s respect. I pushed myself. When I began to go into labor well before my due date, I knew it was time to slow down.

In that slowing down, I was surprised to find that I didn’t need to prove myself. I had higher expectations for myself than anyone else did. I had allowed this physical state of proving to meld into my spiritual life. I had beaten myself up trying to prove myself to God. Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten that grace was for me, too. Grace is not for once we’re good enough. Grace is what makes us good enough. It is not for once the broken bits are pieced together and made shiny and new again. It is the fire that melts down the shards of glass and make them into something beautiful.

“Your identity is not wrapped up in how right you get it or how perfect you can posture yourself. But your identity is wrapped up in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Lecrae

Holiness in the Mess

• What are the broken pieces in your life? What might it look like if grace was enough?
• As receivers of grace, we are privileged to be able to show grace to others. How can living as people of grace change our relationships with family, co-workers, friends?

Steps to Salvation

The Bible states that God loves you and cares for you as a person (John 3:16). Humankind has been separated from God by sin (Romans 3:23). God sent His Son as a provision for our salvation through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead (Romans 5:8). Doing good deeds is not enough (Ephesians 2:8-9), but receiving the free gift of salvation is (John 1:12).

You can invite Jesus Christ into your life right now by praying something like the following:

Dear God, I know I am a sinner. I need Your forgiveness and grace. I believe that Christ paid the penalty for my sin, and He died in my place, and He rose from the dead. I invite Jesus Christ to come into my life as Savior. Thank You for saving me from my sin and making me Your child. Help me to grow and learn how to serve You. Amen.