Did you know that God has been showing man His grace since the beginning of time? It’s true. In Genesis, God created the world and everything in it, including us. God created life, animals, plants, man—everything. God didn’t have to create man. Ever think about that? He didn’t have to breathe life into Adam and Eve. But He chose to do that, blessing man with with the gift of life. Man didn’t deserve life; God gave it to him. That means God’s very first act toward man was an act of grace.
And how did Adam and Eve respond to being created and given the gift of life? By sinning. They did exactly what their Creator had told them not to do. God had specifically told
Adam and Eve they would die if they disobeyed God…If they ate the fruit of this one particular tree, God had said, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). They ate. Sin entered the world. And because death is the price man must pay for his sins, death now existed in the world. But Adam and Eve didn’t die immediately, did they? The Bible tells us more about Adam and Eve, so we know they didn’t die that same day. Why not? Because of God’s grace. That’s the only reason. Adam and Eve knew the consequences of disobeying. But in His grace, God didn’t give them what they deserved. Instead, He allowed them to continue living. God gave them time to think about what they had done, to repent of their sin, and live. It doesn’t mean they didn’t face consequences for their sin. They did. But God allowed them to live, giving them time to repent of sin and live. This is grace. So, I learned that God has been showing man grace since the very beginning.
Unfortunately, God is so gracious that we take His grace for granted. We expect when we go to bed at night that we will wake up in the morning—we take life for granted. We expect the sun to come up—we take that for granted. Plug in anything you like—we take it all for granted. And it’s only by God’s grace that all these things we take for granted actually happen. Yet we are so accustomed to living in sin, with sin, around sin, committing sin…the world, including us, is simply drowning in sin. And yet we still think we’re pretty good people, don’t we? We are not. We are sinners, repeatedly sinning against God and everyone around us. We are so surrounded, immersed, and entrenched in sin that we have no idea how sinful our sin is. Often, we don’t even recognize when we’ve sinned! So, when we have problems or get sick or some bad thing happens, we think, “That’s not fair.” But here’s the truth: holy God has been so gracious to us in giving us life, allowing us to live in His world, and sustaining life in this world that when things go wrong, we blame God. And we think it’s unfair.
I took God’s grace for granted most of my life until about 7 years ago. I lived with complete disregard for God, didn’t have any regard for Jesus and the work He did on the cross for my sin. I’ve caused the Holy Spirit more grief that I can imagine. Thank the Lord, He gave me time, just as He did with Adam and Eve. He was patient with me, drawing me to Himself. I repented of my sin and received that wonderful, priceless gift of life in Christ. The Lord showed me grace. The Apostle Peter wrote that God is patient (2 Peter 3:9). He also wrote that God’s grace is not without end (2 Peter 3:10). There is an end to His grace. I pray you’ll make good use of His gift of time today, and seek His grace and mercy. If you need prayers or a Bible, please let a Feed Your Soul team member know.
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