The Grace of God
Most christians believe, completely truly believe that if the Lord helps them, it is only because they have earned His help. This makes their belief a works based belief. I am not in this camp.
The past few weeks have been difficult, as the "blessing" of two cracked teeth was given to me a few months ago. I refused to go to the dentist (for financial reasons). Finally the pain was so great, this trip was unavoidable. The pain was great enough that sleep was always just out of my grip and the pain killers barely took the edge off. Any sleep had, was only a short break. Pain and exhaustion were all that was really known to me. A church in a town close to me was having free dental, medical and vision screenings this past weekend. I went not knowing what to expect. By the time I left the church I had a free voucher to have my one of my teeth pulled.
The reason for this tale? I hadn't spent much time with God for over a week. I tried, but as exhausted as I was, I just couldn't do it. The day before going to the church I manage to say a short prayer to get my teeth pulled for free. There is no embellishment here, I was so tired I couldn't even have hope and belief in God to fulfill this prayer.
This is where God shows His greatness. The voucher wasn't earned, yet God still showed His Grace. If it were possible to earn from God, He would not have needed to send His Son Jesus to cross to died for us. We all would be able to get to heaven on our own. Yet Jesus himself said in John 14:6 "I am the Way, Truth and Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". In Romans 3:10 it says "As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one". The grace given to us through Jesus going to the cross was not, nor will ever be earned.
