another angle on grace

Grace is one of those words that can quickly become a filler word, a "Christianese" term that floats around like a cloud, nothing but a ball of fluff. We take grace for granted, or fix it into one simple formula, one expression.

Grace is not a one-time experience. It's not only the doorway into the Christian life, not simply the initial baptism into a relationship with Christ. It is the foundation, the lifeblood of our walk with Him. It is the soil and the sun and the water for a growing Christian.

I hope I am always baffled, always taken by the grace of God. Too often I am comfortable with grace or fail to see what's so "amazing" about it.

Lately I have felt myself drifting from God. In the midst of a move and the busyness of visiting friends and family here in Ontario, one of the first things to slip is my own devotional time. I'm not going to pretend that I was perfectly faithful before, but when a few weeks go by and I haven't cracked open my Bible I start to feel it. And -- when I really stop and think -- it's been more than a few weeks!

When I neglect to refresh myself spiritually, I start to feel a little disoriented. I cave into anxiety more easily and become discouraged, irritable, impatient. And then I start to feel guilty, which is ridiculous because it only makes me avoid one-on-one time with God.

I finally got hungry enough that I sat down and started reading several chapters of the Bible, thinking:
"I'm dry and disconnected? Okay, I'll fix this. I'll pull up my bootstraps and really get into God's Word."

And in the order of my reading, I was brought to Psalm 80. Threaded throughout this chapter is the repetition of a few phrases, just in case (like me) you didn't get it the first time:

"Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." (v. 3)

"Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven's Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." (v. 7)

"Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven's Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." (v. 19)

I was also struck by verse 18: "Revive us so we can call on your name once more." Or, in the KJV (love my parallel version!): "quicken us, and we will call upon thy name."

What a mystery! We need the grace of God to turn us to the grace of God. While there is something to be said for spiritual discipline, I cannot stir my own spirit. I can put myself in His Word, or adjust the conditions, but I can't do it on my own.

God has forged his relationship with me by paying for my sin and clothing me in righteousness. He sustains his relationship with me by turning me toward him.

This also gives me faith for the people in my life that I am praying will turn to God. I can try to point them to Christ, but I don't need to agonize about what I did or didn't do, what I said clearly or what I miscommunicated. This is God's work, not mine.

Turn us to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven's Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.