For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
We will often fail to live out our faith in Jesus and stumble in our walk with Him. We won’t always love Him most, love others best, and love rightly all the rest. Instead, we will make ourselves the center of our lives, make self-serving decisions as we plan our lives, and ultimately make a mess out of our lives. We are prone to wander. So, what happens when we don’t do all of the things that Christ-followers ought to do? That. Is. What. Christmas. Is. All. About. Christmas is about a gift of God’s Son, a gift of forgiveness, a gift of eternal life. Christmas is about grace. When you and I do things we shouldn’t do or fail to do things we should do, there is grace for us. Pardon for when we have said “yes” to sins committed and power to say “no” to sins not yet committed. Because of grace we don’t give up in our fight against sin and for holy lives; by grace we get up and fight on! Jesus helps those who are trusting in Him to live God-glorifying, joy-producing, onward-marching lives, and when we fail to do so, He makes sure we don’t stay down for long. He picks us up. He cleans us off. He sends us on. Today, let us not linger in our sin and shame and setback, but repent and rejoice in Jesus and restart moving forward in loving obedience by faith as the joyous strains of this song plays on repeat in our hearts: “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within; grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin.”
