Undeserved favor

This is going to leave some people with sore toes and an even more wounded ego, but it needs to be pointed out even if it may appear to be evident. Bear with me, all who thirst for closeness and a deeper understanding of God. Granted, I have only been truly, truly walking with God for about five years. My path is unique - and so is yours. And yet our God met us exactly where we were at, pulled us back in, and like toddlers who are trying to figure out how to run, He has been more than willing to hold our hands, and has lead us to a safer, more purposeful trail, while also allowing for our anciently-granted free will to reign our decision-making. A test for the weary, if you will. Because this is all part of His perfect plan. If God is God, why doesn’t He just make all the decisions and saves us some trouble? Because He wants us to choose Him, in our freedom. When confronted by doubt and the noise of the world, the Heavenly Father looks at us with love in His eyes from His Heavenly throne and awaits for that moment in which, aware as we are of the difference between right and wrong, we - His kids - will undoubtedly choose right instead of wrong, as much as possible, as often as necessary. Not what is easy, but what is right. A freedom that chooses God is a freedom worth dying for. And He did. God’s grace understands the fragility of the human spirit. For this reason, it renews daily. It is patient. It knows that, given enough love, sooner or later we are bound to stop on our tracks and have one of those “wait a minute!” moments, in which we finally - “finally!”, as I picture angels shouting in Heaven - realize that God is real, and that He has been with us all along. Even in that hospital room. Even as our marriages fell apart. Even as we lost someone, or some place, or some thing that meant the world to us. Grace is nothing more than undeserved favor - in which God’s blessing is bestowed upon us even when we make mistakes and we do not deserve it. It is the ultimate manifestation of love, indeed. As someone who has made her share of awful decisions in her life I can say that only God would look at me and see past each and every one of my failures, anchoring his love in my heart, and not in my actions. And I am so grateful for that! And now, the truth so many ignore every single day: with grace comes responsibility. This circles back to that notion of free will. If our decisions should be able to pick right before wrong, while immersed in our God-given free will - if choosing Him, even when we could choose something or someone else, was what we aimed for - then we should naturally also understand that extending grace - undeserved favor - to others should also be part of this eternal equation we call Christianity. Because what good is love for if we keep it all to ourselves? And that being said, why do we see so many people struggling to make ends meet? Why starvation? Why poverty? Why? There is truthfully no excuse for a person who believes to have Jesus in the heart to live in opulence while never going out of his or her way to extend grace to someone in need. This is biblically supported, by the way: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” - ‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” - 1 Timothy 6:17-19 NIV “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” - Matthew 6:1-4 NIV “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” - Proverbs 11:25 NIV There are so many other instances in which we are clearly directed to care for one another, to help those in need, and to not hang on to money as if money was our salvation. And yet, churches all over the place are filled with believers who may tithe to their church every Sunday, but that when met with a person in need, they will never extend grace to that person, and bless them, so that they may be in need no more. And many churches decline to also help their own churchgoers in need, as if their souls were not as precious as any other. I know this subject makes people uncomfortable. And I believe it does so because somewhere in the rubble that is life, we became entangled with the world and the notion of survival, and we left no room in our lives to love others - truly, truly Jesus-like, love others. It is also very difficult to hear God’s voice when you are drowning it in your own voice, as you speak of your success to others, never finding a second to think of those who may be experiencing difficulty. Compassion has been greatly outcasted these days. “If I can make it, so can you” is the main idea. And so grace is expected from God...but rarely given to others in our lives. I do believe this is also largely related to the fact that most people do not know what it means - or what it feels like - to serve others, but fully demand for others to serve them. There is a painful disconnect when that happens between what it means to be loved by God, and what God spoke to us through Jesus, which is to love others. Most people are gladly receiving God’s love, but they have a real issue with Jesus and His compassionate New Testament teachings. A stark contradiction that has brought Humanity to a breaking point. We, human beings, are highly flawed - no surprise here - and when it comes to love and grace, we have been missing the mark for generations. And so Christianity continues to lose ground and souls, heavily wounded with a wide-spread hypocrisy that is visible to the world it is trying to save. All I am saying is that having money and loving Jesus should only go together when the wealth you possess is always at the service of those who need it. Our job is not to take inventory and judge someone else’s situation, to decide whether they are worthy of our grace or not. Imagine if God had done that with us! Our job is to be an extension of God’s love on Earth, for the time we have here, and until we are called Home. Go and extend some undeserved favor to someone today - and thank God for the chance to do so.