Learning to Receive Grace

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-9

When was the last time you received an extra nugget in your 12-count at Chick-fil-A? What did you do with it? Did you return it… or did you praise your Father in heaven because you were extra hungry that day and then eat it? Chances are, you probably didn’t return the nugget… right? I mean, you were clearly walking in God’s favor, and He was just bestowing His blessings, right? Ha! Or maybe some dude in the kitchen thought he was making a baker’s dozen (for those of you who don’t know what a baker’s dozen is… I bet you’ll Google it) or just wasn’t paying attention. What had you done to hit the nugget jackpot? What had you done to be able to savor the flavor of one more nug, courtesy of the kitchen?

Now that I have created a craving for Chick-fil-A, I hope you think of me next time you’re there and share the wealth… okay, enough about those nuggets. Obviously, today I’m not here to talk about chicken nuggets—tasty as they are. There is a point to this. Today, we are going to talk about a two-part blog post on grace, and by the title, you can probably already guess we are going to talk about being a recipient of grace—learning how to receive it.

Let’s check out this famous scripture from Paul as we enter into this topic and see how God wants us to just receive:

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
Ephesians 2:1-9 NLT

If you’ve been around the evangelical church world—or most of the Protestant church—this section is probably one of the most well-known sections of the New Testament when it comes to the topic of salvation. We draw our core beliefs from this passage written by the Apostle Paul, who writes that we are saved by faith and not by works. This gift of salvation is close at hand; we just have to receive God’s marvelous grace.

Grace… not what you say before you eat those delicious nuggets from Chick-fil-A, but the undeserved gift—something that could not be obtained by how great or awesome you are… only by how great and awesome God is! That’s it. God’s gift of salvation—eternity forever—is a gift that only has to be received.

This is where I come in—not because I have not received salvation, but because I have a problem receiving grace. I write about this because, at the end of the day, the expectations I place on myself are beyond realistic and unattainable most of the time, which leaves me feeling guilty and unworthy. I want to be the best husband, the best dad, the best friend, the greatest youth pastor… you name it. So what do I do? I work my butt off to be it. However, when I fall short, I fall emotionally hard on myself. You see, I’m in desperate need of grace—which means at the end of the day, I won’t always be the best. I won’t always achieve all I want to in a week. In fact, I’ll fail at things… yep, in fact, it happened to me just the other day.

Every week, our student ministry leads six Bible studies from Tulsa to Coweta. The amazing thing about these Bible studies is that they are all student-led—which will be another blog post one day—but in addition to the Bible study, they also provide donuts for the kids who come. How the donuts get to the schools is thanks to some of our amazing youth volunteers every week. This past week, I was responsible for picking up the donuts, and… well, me being a new parent not getting much sleep… I slept through my alarm. Yep, you guessed it—I missed Bible study, and the kids missed donuts. Now, mind you, I cannot remember the last time I slept through my alarm. However, I felt as though I had disappointed the whole world. I felt horrible… in fact, I felt paralyzed for a moment that I let a group of 30+ middle school students down. I had failed. So I texted the students leading that morning and apologized that I was not going to be able to make it, and that I was so sorry. To which, in a matter of seconds, they all replied, “No worries… we forgive you.” Grace. Learning how to receive grace. Right there, my middle school students were teaching me to just relax and embrace grace.

I am not going to declare that I have this “receiving grace” thing all figured out, but I will say I am working on it. In fact, a key verse in the scripture above that is helping me is:

“So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:7 NLT

God is able to be seen in my failures—big or small. When I can be a better leader, when I can be a better dad, when I can serve my wife better… most of the time, others are going to extend grace just like God. Will I choose to receive it? Because when I do, the grace of God is able to be put on display, which, at the end of the day, is a far better visual for others to see than my abilities to try and display perfection.

So where are you? When was the last time you received grace? Or have you been like me… walking around guilty, too perfect for grace, not worthy of it, or too prideful to embrace it? My challenge to you: know that you will fail, and at the end of the day, it may be hard—but also know that those failures will display our King. In all your efforts, displaying this grace to others is the best thing you can do: point people to the giver of grace, the One who gave it all!

So if life extends to you an extra nugget in your 12-count of life… receive it, embrace it, consume it. Because in the end, until we learn how to receive grace, we won’t fully understand how to share it. Which will be next week’s post: Learning to Extend Grace.