Grateful for Grace!

“So now, we come freely and boldly to where love is enthroned to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness” (Hebrews 4:16 TPT).

This Thanksgiving season, I’m especially grateful for grace. Not just the aspect of grace we have grown up on (that is, the undeserved or “unmerited” favor associated with the gift of salvation). I want to emphasize here what I believe to be an oft-overlooked aspect of grace—God’s power and ability, given to us, in a moment of crisis, struggle or weakness.

In 2020, Facebook (Meta) sent me a notice saying I was now “restricted from advertising.” I wracked my brain trying to figure out what the problem was. I was not in the habit of making political comments of any sort. Certainly, I knew people who did. The result: Facebook would shut down their pages for long periods of time, sometimes indefinitely.

Finally, I found an Instagram hashtag from a few weeks prior—one that apparently “associated” me with a political platform touting “conspiracy theories.”

This was a moment of crisis for me. Not because the advertising capability for my new book was now eliminated. But because, suddenly, I was forced to reckon with the fact that Facebook—a mainstay in the realm of social media the world over—had subtly taken away my fundamental right to free speech.

At that moment, I had to run into God’s presence to receive the grace I needed to overcome a gripping fear of what might happen next in our country and in our world (and how those happenings might affect me, my family and us all).

Manifesting God’s Abilities and Power

This year, God’s grace has helped me and other Christians I know overcome many struggles and fears. These include the gal who felt condemned due to her sexual sin. Also, the one confused by her sexual identity. And the one who felt rejected and offended and held in contempt by fellow church members.

Then there’s my friend who was diagnosed with cancer. And the one who was tired of striving and living under the Law (which had seemingly reduced her Christian life down to what she was eating and drinking).

Just in the last few weeks, there are even more people in my life who need to experience God’s supernatural wisdom, ability, and strength: a woman who was forced out of her church due to a misunderstanding with the pastor, another young woman suffering from suicidal tendencies, and a good friend from college who lost her husband of 38 years (a pastor who went to heaven after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer).

I am also reminded of a man from Bogota, Columbia, a Christian who for decades has suffered at the hand of familial witchcraft. And I am remembering another friend whose husband was caught cheating.

Facing adversities of all types, this group of folks, myself included, has needed to delve deeper into the things of God. Specifically, we have sought to understand the process we must go through so God can manifest His life (that is, His abilities and power) in us.

Getting Our Thinking Unstuck

Many of us Christians have been limited in our understanding of grace, because our thinking was somehow stuck on the definition mentioned above, “unmerited favor” (perhaps misinterpreted to mean we can “get” something without much of a struggle). But charis, the Greek word for “grace,” used some 156 times in the New Testament, is defined as both “good will, loving-kindness, favor”—and “that which produces joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness.”

The truth is, we must oftentimes “struggle,” just as the New Testament believers did, before we can experience the “joy and delight” results about which the early disciples speak.

This is not to say that God will never give us better jobs, new cars, spouses, or greatly improved circumstances (again, interpreted as “divine favor”). But much of the time I believe God is trying to teach us to step into the bigger picture so we can experience the greater qualities that come to us when we manifest His ability and power from our places of weakness.

This year, I have come into a fuller understanding of what this “stepping into the big picture” grace really looks like. For starters, it does not come about when we always get everything we want. And it doesn’t come about when we refuse to do what God is asking (what He is unfolding right in front of us).

An example of what I’m talking about would be when the Apostle Paul begged God to take away his “thorn in the flesh.” However, God did not remove it. Paul’s circumstances did not change. Instead, God said to him, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 TPT).

Later in this same verse, we see that Paul did step further into the plan God had for him, as he testifies, “So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.”  

God’s Ability Is Always Available

Earlier in the week I attended a Thanksgiving service during which several thankful people shared their stories of what God had done for them in the last year.  The word “grace” was not used in any of their testimonies. But the underpinnings of God’s grace were apparent in each one.

One man spoke about a “crisis” health issue that had sent him to the hospital emergency room. The many tests performed ($13,000 worth) showed high blood sugar to be the culprit. The man went home, had a little discussion with the Lord, then cleaned out the pantry and fridge. (I believe God was giving him “Holy Spirit control” so he could change his eating habits.)

But what was this man to do about the bill? He went to the hospital and had another little discussion, this time with the administrator. “I am self-insured,” he told her. “Well, this is your lucky day,” she said. “We are charging you $1300!” (Over the last year, this same man has lost 60 pounds and his blood sugar has returned to normal!)

Another man, formerly addicted to drugs and alcohol (but who got saved and completely delivered 13 years ago), testified that he had suffered over the years from a thinning of his esophageal lining due to previous alcohol abuse. After four procedures, the doctors had run out of options. Major surgery would be required.

The man went home and called his pastor. “Pastor, I am believing that God will heal me.” Then he called the doctor and cancelled the surgery. “It won’t be needed,” he told him. (God was giving this man the ability to “believe”).

That week the man sat in a wooden, folding chair used during the healing meetings of A. A. Allen back in the 1940’s. Everyone at the prayer meeting gathered around and prayed. Four months later, this same man is completely healed!

Working It All Out

Certainly, it is because of God’s love, mercy, and grace (that is, His “divine influence upon our hearts”) that we can advance in our understanding of Him and in our experience with Him. First, He gives us salvation through His Son. He does this even though we do not deserve it! It’s a free gift!

But there are aspects of God’s grace that are not entirely free, though always available. The Bible says that after we receive salvation, we must “work it out.”  When we are willing to “work it out”—especially in the face of adversity—God can move us into that place where true joy, delight, pleasure, and sweetness is produced in us. When this happens, God’s life is manifested in us.

The last person to share at the Thanksgiving service I attended was a young woman whose life has been turned upside down in the last year and a half due to significant losses. First, her paternal grandmother passed away, then her mother, then her maternal grandmother, her mother-in-law, and her brother-in-law.

The grief was so unbearable this young woman contemplated ending her own life. But her husband and children needed her. And her father needed her. Her father was in fact asking her to fill the gap his wife had left in their 40-year ministry together. So this young woman pressed into God like never before, day after day, seeking Him in His Word through many tears, asking Him to give her a desire to live.

God’s Ability Is Always Sufficient

I’m not sure how long it took, but one particular day thereafter, God finally acted in this young woman’s life. It was almost like when the Holy Spirit came and overshadowed young Mary, calling her to do something beyond her comprehension and ability. As you know, God gave Mary, the mother of Jesus, the grace to do the impossible.

Likewise, God gave the young woman I heard testify the sudden and supernatural ability to step into His bigger plan.  What He gave was something she had never before received in such measure, such fullness: It was, according to her testimony, “an awareness of His love.”

As we move into a very uncertain future, the church must get very serious about manifesting God’s light, life and love. For this to happen, we as individual Christ-followers must learn to move in His grace. To do this we must seek Him, daily. We must fully surrender to His bigger picture. We must reckon with the fact that we might be constrained for a period of time, with circumstances less than desirable. Last, we must develop the mindset that God will give us His ability, as needed, so we can do what we need to do.

This Thanksgiving, let us not forget to thank God for the most valuable provision of all—His grace, His life in us. It is sufficient in all things!

Emily Gardner Foppe helps individuals overcome fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, and many other hindrances to the Christian faith through memory healing and deliverance. She also coaches them on how to live in “union” with God through “exchange,” a supernatural principle found throughout the scriptures. To order her book, Invite Jesus into Your Traumatic Memories, click here. To consult with her, click here. To donate to her ministry, click here.

Related Verses:

“And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18 TPT).

“My beloved ones, just like you’ve always listened to everything I’ve taught you in the past, I’m asking you now to keep following my instructions as though I were right there with you. Now you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God—which brings you trembling into his presence. God will continually revitalize you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:12–13 TPT).

“So now, Lord, listen to their threats to harm us. Empower us, as your servants, to speak the word of God freely and courageously. Stretch out your hand of power through us to heal, and to move in signs and wonders by the name of your holy Son, Jesus! At that moment the earth shook beneath them, causing the building they were in to tremble. Each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaimed the word of God with unrestrained boldness. All the believers were one in mind and heart. Selfishness was not a part of their community, for they shared everything they had with one another. The apostles gave powerful testimonies about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great measures of grace rested upon them all. Some who owned houses or land sold them and brought the proceeds before the apostles to distribute to those without. Not a single person among them was needy.” (Acts 4:29–35 TPT).

“And that is but one example of what God is doing in this age of fulfillment, for God’s grace empowers his chosen remnant. And since it is by God’s grace, it can’t be a matter of their good works; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a gift of grace, but earned by human effort” (Romans 11:5–6 TPT).