I wish that I had known about grace when I was 12 years old. I know God had a reason for not teaching me about that until I was 40, but after He did, I do regret the lost years. I went through the motions of accepting Jesus when I was a youth. I attended church faithfully with my family, sang in the choir, went to the youth classes and events, but my main motivation was that I was running away from hell, not running towards Jesus. Prayer was about pleading with God to save me from eternal destruction rather than talking and getting to know the only real friend we have.

The Christians in the church that I attended growing up, who appeared to be the proper “models” seemed pretty serious. There was the pastor who spent his sermons telling us about all of the things we shouldn’t do, because Jesus didn’t do that. In the church choir, I sat next to a man who was that serious type. He rarely smiled, didn’t say much, and took pages of notes during the sermon. I really worried that I would need to be like him if I was to be a good Christian. I didn’t realize until years later that they all just wore masks to cover the guilt that they felt because they didn’t measure up. Until I learned that, I did the same, creating my own masks. I think we all do to some extent.

But, they weren’t all like that. God’s grace has a way of working in people even without good teaching or if we look to the wrong role models. But I guess back then I thought that if you weren’t serious enough, you really weren’t serious about God.

Then years later I learned about grace. It took a long time for that to sink in. And it is still working on me. We talk about sanctification in our walk with Him and I think a lot of it is allowing the Holy Spirit to help us unlearn the lies that the world has told us in our life journey. It is also allowing the Holy Spirit to help us recognize all the masks that we have so carefully created, so we can put them away, never to wear them again.

What I have discovered about grace is that it naturally draws you to prayer. Not the prayers of “save me from hell” or “help me in my time of need”. But grace creates prayers of love, worship, praise, and thankfulness. Those are the prayers that we can pray that go on forever and ever.

Grace and Prayer, it is a powerful combination that allows the love of God to change us. It’s freely accepting His grace and praising Him for it. It’s not about being or doing anything. It is about loving Him and allowing that love to flow out of us to others.

Always praying for the glory of God,