We Believe in Real Life Grace

What good is Christianity when what you hoped to experience as a follower of Jesus hasn’t happened, or when your worst nightmare has come true? The divorce has been finalized. The children have abandoned the faith and started using drugs. The prayers for healing have gone unanswered; your cancer is terminal. You are addicted to pornography…still. You don’t have joy or peace. You are filled with fear and frustration. In honest moments, you can admit that deep down you are disappointed with God, maybe even angry with Him for what He’s allowing to happen. You gave Him your life, and it’s falling apart. Now what? 

Contrary to fantasies many of us have entertained, becoming a Christian is no guarantee of a charmed, easy, or sin free life. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble”(John 16:33). It is a promise, and we live in the reality of it every day. Life is hard for all of us. We experience pain, disappointment, and conflict of all kinds in this fallen world. No matter how hard we try to fix things, they still seem broken. The more we work at getting our stuff together, the more it falls apart. The harder we try to repair relationships, the more distant people become. We often struggle and strive only to end up exhausted and empty. 

We believe that God’s grace impacts us most powerfully in these difficulties of real life. In these painful providences, God reveals that He is not a demanding taskmaster, but a merciful Savior. He is not disappointed or angry with us. He understands our weaknesses and delights to meet us in our mess. He knows that true hope for our souls is not found in our efforts, but in His grace alone. We stumble and fall and fail, but He still loves us, and He is active in all of our lives using the hardships we face to open our hearts to the healing of His real life grace.