Peace through Grace

St. Paul says that we have peace with God, because by grace we can come to our Father in heaven (Romans 5:1-2).

What is grace? Grace is the ultimate expression of God’s mercy toward us, given as a free gift through Christ to all who come to him for forgiveness of sins. When Jesus sees that our lives are empty, and in need, He gives liberally. By the grace of God, Jesus gives us faith when we have no faith, hope when we have no hope, above all gives us in abundance the love of our heavenly Father.

To all those who find it hard to make it up the ladder of the beatitudes we are given the gift of Grace. Sometimes we think we are growing spiritually we have reached the last rung of the ladder, and some situation blows us off and we fall flat back where we started, or we find we have slipped down a rung or two. Let us not deceive ourselves we are human and we are frail. We have our moments, we have our lapses. St. Paul talks about our human nature that is always in conflict with our spiritual nature. But it is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that comes to us in these moments and touches our lives.

There are times when we need to be ministered to. We need the Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts and minds. The Holy Spirit is like a medicine that soothes us. Christ realized that he could not physically be with everyone, but he said that once he ascended to heaven he would send a helper, the Holy Spirit whose presence will be with us always (John 14:16). As the African American Spiritual goes, there is a balm in Gilead that heals a sin sick soul. The hymn goes on to say there are times when we feel discouraged and think life is vain, but it is the working of the Holy Spirit that revives us by the grace of Jesus Christ, that fills us with God’s peace. God will keep us in perfect peace whose mind is centered on Him. (Isaiah 26:3)

St. Augustine says, “God gives where He finds empty hands.”