Facing Grace
Facing Grace
Our plane was about to land in Bangkok. We were beginning a summer mission trip to college campuses in the city, and this was my first time out of the U.S. I really did not know what to expect. The plane landed and we gathered our bags and lined up to get off the plane. I was about third in line away from the door; the cool clean air in the plane was familiar and comfortable. I didn’t know it yet, but I was incubated there in the last vestiges of the world I had grown up in. The door to the plane opened in front of me and that familiar world faded quickly as the smell of hot wet Thailand hit my senses. The humidity that flooded into the plane felt like a blanket of thick moist air that engulfed me and manifested itself in beads of sweat across my skin. It brought with it a smell that combined the smoke of fire, refuse, boiled chicken and a very dirty bathroom all in one aroma. It was night, but I saw the black shining asphalt of the tarmac and steam wandered aimlessly across the windless landscape. The outline of palm trees was silhouetted in the dark night sky. It had just stopped raining in Bangkok; and it was in that moment that I heard God speak to me as close to audibly as any time in my life.
We had been flying for almost twenty hours, and there was a sense of dread that covered me. I knew I didn’t belong. I felt as if I was not worthy to be on this trip. The reason for all my trepidation and inadequacy was rooted in the preparation for the trip that I had failed at miserably. We had to raise support from donations to pay for our trip to Thailand. I was scared to ask people for money, and I was not faithful to do that as I should have. The leader of the trip tried to help, and I did manage to raise about half of the amount required. I felt unworthy to go; so, I had sat down with the director and told him so. He very wisely denied my request to back out and explained that the total amount needed for the trip had been raised and I was covered. I felt like I had not earned the right to go; I was inadequate, second-rate. I was on my way to Thailand because others had been faithful where I had not. All those hours on the plane I beat myself up and spiraled down a path of discouragement, unworthiness, shame and despair. There was no way the trip to Thailand was going to be successful for me.
The door to the plane opened and as I was assailed by the ambience of Bangkok, God very clearly spoke and simply said, “I have brought you here.” My emotions calmed. My feelings of inadequacy melted away. My discouragement was dispelled. As I left the plane and embarked on the summer, I realized that my past actions did not matter. I only needed to walk in the future that God had planned for me in Thailand.
Over and over in my life that phrase has come back to me – “I have brought you here”. In my walk with God, I get discouraged about my lack of obedience; really, about my disobedience. I suspect many of you go through the same emotions for the same reasons. I have my moments when God shows me a profound truth from His word and sometimes, I am obedient, and God uses me to bring about some good things. Sometimes I allow that errant thought, sharp word, anger, or lust to derail my obedience. There is something that distracts me, and I end up going back to God for forgiveness, needing more grace. When I go back to God, and humble myself and remind myself of what Christ did for me at the cross
and the resurrection, a passion fills me again. The phrase comes back to me, “I have brought you here”. Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
In the next chapter, Philippians 2:13 Paul says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” God is not giving up on me. He is assuring us no matter the narrative of our lives, He is working in us to make us more like Christ. My feeble efforts and seeming unending failure are no match for what God has spoken over me. He has declared me righteous based on my belief in His son Jesus Christ. He is working in me to cause me to love His righteousness. The fact that I hate my sin and its effects on me shows that He is working in me, and He is doing the same in you.
“I have brought you here!” I think of all it took for God to get me here. His goal has always been to bring me to a place where I could be with Him. Romans 3:23-24 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Though we were far off from God, He has brought us near to Him if we receive His son by faith. Paul goes on to say in Romans 3:26 (ESV), “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” So here we are standing now in the middle of God’s declaration of our righteousness. Here we are standing now in the good work He began in us. Here we are standing in His working in us for His good pleasure. Here we are on our way to the day when we will be like Jesus. And all along the way we can hear Him say, “I have brought you here.”
The passage in 1 John 3 speaks to us about this. I love this passage because it describes so well what it means to live life “Facing Grace”. 1 John 3:1–3 (ESV) “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
So, the next time our flesh and our hearts and Satan and the world system starts condemning us and we experience the anguish of sin, and are suffering the shame, guilt and failure that goes with it remember our hope. It is in hope we confess and repent and move forward. Take your eyes off your failure and look to the day when we will be like Him! Live life facing grace with a sure hope, a sure joy, and a secure purpose.
Like that day on that plane so long ago in Bangkok, every day, and at every failure and every triumph hear him say. “I have brought you here!” As we face temptation and overcome our weakness and the power of Christ rests on us, hear him say, “I have brought you here!” When we lose our way, and question our purpose or direction hear him say, “I have brought you here!” As we live life “Facing Grace” we must remember where we are heading. God intends for us to be like Jesus, and He will not fail.
