Trusting in God's Grace

 God's grace is a part of who He is. God is love, and He always acts in a gracious way, because of that love. However, when we sin, He does punish us for our sin. He punishes us out of love in His desire to keep us from sinning more. Even then, He is gracious and merciful toward us. David knew this very well. He had sinned terribly in committing adultery with Bathsheba and having Uriah killed to cover his sin. God convicted David of his sin, and David confessed. However, God told him that the baby that was conceived in his adulterous affair would die. When the baby fell ill, David fasted and wept before the Lord, trusting in the grace of God. (II Samuel 12:22) David knew the gracious heart of God, and he thought that God might change His mind because of that grace. However, the child did die, and David stopped his fasting and weeping, since he could not bring the child back. This is a powerful lesson for all of us.

We must be careful not to think of God as a vengeful, negative God who looks for any reason to harm us or to make us unhappy. The opposite is true. God wants what is best for us, and He gives us more than we deserve out of His grace. We need to trust in the grace of God, so that no matter what happens to us, we know God is always being gracious. He is not trying to hurt us. He wants us to be drawn close to Him, even through our pains and trials. Therefore, we must never give up on the grace of God for our lives. We must pray and fast to show God our heart for Him. We must show Him that we know He loves us so much that He will extend grace to us any time He can in His wisdom.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 14-17.