Do you know what grace looks like?

You have probably heard the joke about the man lost at sea. He cries out to the Lord to save him. Not long after the Coast Guard comes by and throws him a lifesaver. “No thanks, I’m waiting on God to rescue me,” the man foolishly replies.

Do we recognize when God is revealing His grace to us? When someone hurts you, do you accept the hurt and hold resentment toward that person, or do you allow that hurt to bring you to the low place of forgiveness? Instead of seeing an injustice or a wrong, let the Spirit open your eyes to the opportunity before you. Through this test God has provided the means for you to humble yourself. It seems that God will almost always use other people to test us.

There are two beams of the cross. The beam that stands upright and is held in place by the earth, and the beam that was placed upon the back of Jesus by the Roman soldiers. The vertical beam represents our relationship with God. There is a level of brokenness that enters into our life through dealings with God Himself. This is the sorrow and repentance that is ushered into us through the deep conviction of personal sins. These are internal dealing with our conscience and convictions. Then there is the horizontal bar. This speaks of our relationships with others. The ones in whom we live and work, shoulder-to-shoulder everyday. There is the portion of the cross that is imposed upon us by other people. These are often the hardest to carry. If you remember, Jesus Himself was unable to carry the cross beam to the top of the hill on His own.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. -Matthew 27:32

As Christ humbly carried out His sentence of death we see the limitations of the human flesh. God provided someone for Jesus. A man standing on the side of the road to help. Just as Christ was hindered by the limits of the flesh and could not bear the cross on His own, how much more will you and I never be able to bear the cross on our own strength? God has also provided someone to come along side us to bear the weight of the cross for us. We cannot endure it on our own. We cannot forgive others, love our enemies or even keep “The golden rule”, without the power of the Spirit. If you look around and see only hurt and wrong, allow God to open your eyes to the grace He is affording you. No only does God call us to take up our cross and follow Him, but He himself will bear the cross for us when we have reached the end of ourselves