Like every aspect of our relationship with Jesus, our opening and appropriating His lavish gifts are a step of faith and receiving His grace and favor are no different. To come full circle, our faith to really take hold of His grace for every area of our lives, most especially our deepest, darkest struggles, takes place when we have developed a relationship of trust with Him. We come to trust His Word concerning grace for these areas because we have grown in our trust of Him personally.
As with any deep human relationship, the more we know someone, their character, their reliability, the sound of their voice, their care for us, and the enjoyment of their presence, the easier it is for us to trust them. The more we trust someone, the more we feel safe in our hearts to open ourselves up to really know them and for them to know us. And as trust grows the more able we are to receive what they say is true. It is the same with the Lord Jesus.
But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.Romans 5:15
Often, this is where we seem to falter by not believing the power of God’s grace, by not taking the much-needed time alone with Him to really know Him. Knowing Him intimately, one-on-one for ourselves: His felt presence in the Holy Spirit and experiencing the power of His Word for our own lives.
Nobody can do our faith-walk for us. Not nobody!
However, intimacy – a close heart-walk – with Lord Jesus in the midst of our struggles can seem like a vicious circle. I need to know Him up close and personal to be set free my issues, but it is the guilt of my issues that keeps me from truly coming to Him and pouring out my heart.
For years I lived under a guilt-laden-trip of checking off my Christian to-do list with my prayer times and reading the Bible daily. Make no mistake here – I loved Lord Jesus, I was serving Him. Yet the love affair of my youthful salvation gave way to the deception that the rest of my Christian walk was up to me. I could easily receive His grace resulting in my salvation, but for the rest of my life’s struggles – not so much. I loved Jesus, I loved telling people about Jesus, I loved teaching out of His Word to people, but did I believe He liked, accepted, and favored me – well no, not really. I lived for years thinking He was against me because of my struggles in the dark of my soul I just couldn’t get free from. Until...
For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17
...Until...I began to know Him.