“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:12
Read Hebrews 4:14-16
Not a single gift giving etiquette guru on the internet said, “If you receive a gift from someone at Christmas, you must reciprocate in kind.” Not even the southern ones ya’ll! So why do we cringe when someone approaches us with a gift as we sit there empty handed. Chances are they just wanted to bless you and show you that they care. It’s likely they have no expectation whatsoever of your returning the favor. But so often we quickly (and sometimes begrudgingly) run right out to buy a gift that is equal to or greater than the one we received! We let what’s meant to be a no strings attached, loving gesture wrap us up in guilt and shame.
Maybe this feeling of unworthiness is why we sometimes have a hard time accepting and understanding the grace and mercy we receive through Jesus. Maybe the guilt and shame keep us from fully comprehending that it’s given freely and abundantly and for no other reason than just because God loves us. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave his only son so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. Jesus said, I have come so that you will have abundant life. It doesn’t say God so loved the world, because the people cleaned their lives up. It doesn’t say I have come to give you abundant life because of all the good work you’ve done.
Mercy and grace are two of the greatest gifts established in Jesus. But we must understand that they are just that. Gifts. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Jesus took that retribution for our sins upon himself by giving his life on the cross. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Remember that abundant life we mentioned before? Jesus brought that in the form of forgiveness, peace, joy and freedom.
Because of Jesus we can stand before God with no strings attached. We for sure can’t out gift God! His gifts are timeless and powerful. But what we can bring before him is a heart full of worship. We don’t earn God’s love and there’s nothing we can do to atone for our sins. God loves us just because he does.
In His goodness he poured out his loving kindness through Jesus onto mankind with the gifts of mercy and grace.
Family Activity: Our response to the Good news of Jesus is worship!
Talk about how you can worship God in your homes.