Day 49 - God’s Grace
When you need God’s grace the most, you can ask Him for it.
Elisabeth Elliot experienced the deaths of her first two husbands. She says, “I think that the reason I did not cry at Jim or Ad’s funeral was because God gives grace to help in time of need. Everybody else at those funeral services was just dissolved in tears. I can honestly say that I really did not feel like crying; I was just so swept away with the glory of the fact that my husbands were with the Lord.
"I think God gives special grace at times like these to people who need it the most.”
God’s grace sustains us in a variety of ways. In Elisabeth Elliot’s case, God’s grace enabled her to focus on her husbands’ blessed experiences being in the Lord’s presence. That brought her great comfort and that resulted in no tears. That is not always going to be the case. Tears are a natural and a common reaction to loss and suffering (as Jesus’ own experience illustrates, see John 11:35 and Hebrews 5:7). So, although we cannot predict what God’s sustaining grace will always look like in our lives, we can be assured it’s available. So, ask Him.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1–2).
Heavenly Father, I believe that You can give me a special grace to help me through the hardest times. I will stand on Your promises, even when it’s so hard to understand Your plan for my life. Amen.