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. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. In those days you were living apart from Christ. . . . You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
For Christ himself has brought peace to us.
Ephesians 2:8-10, 11-13 14 New Living Translation (NLT)
Grace wakes us up each day after graciously allowing us to sleep, resting our bodies from the toils of our day. Sometimes we can't sleep, but this can be attributed to our ignorance of God's grace as we toss and turn and worry about moments in a future we don't control. Yet, even then His grace is sufficient. We don't deserve it, no matter how good or bad we think we are. So bragging and taking credit for God's grace may be keeping us awake and unable to sleep on yet another night. Only surrender to the One who surrendered His life for us can work the miracles we need for the peace we yearn for.
While so much division is taking place in the world today, those who are believers of Christ must remember that we were once foreigners to the Gospel of God and without hope. We don't control the market on who God will bless or who He wants to bless through us. As we resist this truth we are kept from being united with Christ. Being united with Christ means being united with everyone with the newness of the loving spirits He has given us when we accepted Christ as Savior and having the desire to share this precious gift. Anyone who denies they must love others, denies God love (1 John 4:8).
We may build governments and borders and walls marking off our own little places on this planet we don't want others to cross, but it all belongs to God. We must let others in with the same grace that opened the door for us. When we strive too hard to keep others off of what we consider "our turf," we must remember that we are all still "outsiders" hoping to get into God's Kingdom.
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