Today we have a guest blog from Mark Batterson. Mark is lead pastor for National Community Church in Washington DC. He is the author of Circle Maker, and Wild Goose Chase and others (Note: This post was lost in the “Crash” of our website. I wanted to bring it back. It was originally posted in 2012)
We tend to think of mercy and grace as the same thing so we praise God for one thing instead of two! Mercy is NOT getting what you deserve–the wrath of God. Grace is getting what you DON’T deserve–the righteousness of Christ. So grateful for both!
I think we sometimes fall into trap of thinking we should need God’s grace less and less. It’s not true. I need God’s grace more and more. Hopefully we need God’s forgiving grace less as God sanctifies us. But that is just one dimension of His amazing grace. I need his gifting grace and empowering grace more and more because I’m in over my head. I keenly aware of the fact that I need his grace more today than I did yesterday. And I’ll need it more tomorrow than I did today.
I love the exhortation in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace that we might receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”