Space For Grace

St. Augustine, one of the early Church’s great teachers who once lived far apart from God, eventually prayed, “Lord, let me know myself, and let me know You.” He understood something deeply true: when we see ourselves honestly, we begin to see God more clearly. That kind of honesty creates space for grace.

Let's face it, we are often not honest with ourselves. We look at ourselves with a skewed vision, diminishing faults while exaggerating our goodness and greatness (yes, you!!). We don't like seeing our faults, and we find it all too easy to ignore them while focusing on those things that make us feel good about ourselves – things we are sure others see as well!

But Augustine hit the nail on the head. When we begin to look at ourselves honestly, we see hints of just how full of grace our God truly is! After all, if He can love us with all our flaws, shortcomings, and ungodly desires and behavior, He surely must be full of grace!

When we ignore or deny our shortcomings and failures, we block the space reserved for God's grace. We wrongfully assume that God will simply grant us mercy if we ignore the voice of conviction burning in our hearts for our sinful behavior, actions, and thoughts. So often, we put up a barrier and refuse to allow God's grace to lead us to a clean and pure heart by heeding the call to repentance.

Spend some time thinking about Augustine's words and pray with him: “Lord, let me know myself, and let me know You.” 

Transparency. Honesty. Humility. Truthfulness. Surrender.

If any of us truly wants to know Him more, we need to seek to know who we really are. As we begin to see the fullness of His grace at work in our lives, we will start to know Him in greater measure than ever before.

This post develops my thoughts from today's blog by Broken Door Ministries.