Pslam 46:10 “Cease Striving and know that I am God.” (NASB)
Having just spent a solid week entrenched in learning at Wartburg Theological Seminary I feel more than compelled to share what I’m learning with the community. Wartburg, bring a Lutheran institution, did an excellent job of nailing home the cornerstone of Lutheran faith and theology during my classes: Grace.
Grace is great! We sing about it, we talk about it, people write sermons with this word in it. What could be better?!
Before you answer that question, answer this one: have you ever had a professor from Guyana explain to you for hours at a time the big implications of this idea? Have you?
Of course not! Because it makes you crazy!
Okay, not really crazy, just punchie or as my professor said, “Cheeky”. But the thing about grace is its hug implications for the things in our life that are actually completely out of our hands.
Grace means that in everyway God comes to us. God alone is the source of life, healing, and forgiveness.
But more than that, its only by the grace of God that we can possibly come to understand and believe these things. It is not even our own merits that lead us to believe, rather it is God that provides us with the life-giving ability to even believe in God in the first place.
Crazy. And I’m sure some are thinking just that right now: Crazy. It kind of sucks to not be able to claim credit or even take things into our own hands. But then again how much sense does this idea make? The very best thing in my entire life, my faith, is all because of how the Holy Spirit has worked through me and others to bring me to my belief in the first place.
This Grace idea is incredible. It doesn’t compel me to sit back and do nothing but it does give me immense hope. Its not what I do, it’s what God does through me and others. Even believing this good news isn’t up to me. And that's good news.