His Grace Has Overflowed For Me

God’s grace is immense. Anyone with the understanding that sin separates us from God and the power that sin has against us knows the value of God’s grace. If it wasn’t for God’s grace our wages, our destiny, would be eternal death (Rom 6:23). We know that God is able to forgive us because of His grace, but have you ever felt like you’ve done something so bad that you can’t ever be forgiven?

In the short time I worked as a youth minister and on rare occasions when I was a camp counselor, I found this to be a common thought amongst a lot of teenagers. “I’ve gone so far away from God that there’s no way He’d forgive me.” Even in our adult life we may feel like we’ve betrayed God to the point were grace is no longer available and the only thing left to do is give up. How sad it is to give up on faith because we believe God can’t forgive us.

Let’s see if your sins match up with Paul’s and determine what can be done.

Paul admitted to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:13 that he had been a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent to God. Paul had dedicated his early adult life to exterminating the church; consenting to stonings like that of Stephen and trying to imprison and destroy Christians following Jesus. Paul completely and utterly opposed God’s will yet listen to what happened in 1 Timothy 1:13-14:

“…But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Not only was Paul forgiven, God’s grace overflowed in his life. It’s truly incredible how we can be so far gone and yet God is always willing to make our cup run over with grace. When we turn to Him as Paul did, He’ll wrap us in His loving embrace and all that we’ve done will be forgiven. Praise God! - Zack