Grace To The Rescue

When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced.  The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.  “Don’t stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel.  So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering.  He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel, and the Lord answered him.  – 1 Samuel 7:7-9 

My wife came to me needing help with something.  It was nothing unusual.  She asks for help all the time, and I am usually glad to give it.  But this particular ask landed at the wrong moment.  A sporting event was on.  I had already spent most of the day running errands and helping around the house, and I had finally sat down to rest.  When she walked in with one more thing, I did not pause.  I did not think.  I lashed out at her. 

The moment I saw her face, I knew.  Something in me dropped.  I genuinely apologized, but the damage was done, and she had every right to walk away.  She didn’t.  After a little more time and a little more consoling, she let me help her.  I had not earned that.  I had done the opposite of earning it.  And still, she made room for me. 

There are moments in all our lives when we know we are in the wrong.  Maybe it was a flash of anger.  Maybe it was poor judgment that landed on someone who did not deserve it.  Maybe it was a long pattern we kept pretending we did not see.  In those moments, we stand exposed by our own behavior.  And then, sometimes, something we did not expect happens.  We are met with grace. 

The people of Israel knew that feeling well.  In the chapters leading up to 1 Samuel 7, they had drifted, lost the Ark of the Covenant in battle, and suffered consequence after consequence of their own choices.  Now the Philistines were mobilizing again, and Israel was afraid.  They had no claim to make.  Their record was not strong.  But they turned to the prophet Samuel and pleaded with him to keep crying out on their behalf.  “‘Don’t stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!’ they Israelites begged Samuel,” it says. 

What strikes me is not what Israel deserved.  It is what Israel received.  They had wandered.  They had failed.  They were afraid of what was coming, and much of what was coming were the natural fruits of how they had lived.  And yet, when they cried out, the Lord answered.  Not because the cry was some elaborate prayer.  Not because the people were ready.  But because grace had always been the heart of the One they were calling on. 

That is the part that humbles me most.  Grace does not wait for us to clean ourselves up before it arrives.  Grace meets us in the moment we realize we are wrong.  It does not erase the fact that we caused harm.  It does not pretend the wound was not real.  It simply makes a way back; an opening we did not create and could not have created on our own.  It shows the heart of God. 

When my wife extended kindness in a moment I had earned the opposite, she was reflecting something far larger than herself.  She was reflecting the posture of a God who hears the cry of people who have no leg to stand on and still chooses to answer.  After all, she is my better half for a reason.  A pastor gave me a phrase that I simply cannot forget.  He said, “God does not leave us with His holiness so that we fear Him.  He leaves us with His grace so that we love and worship Him.”  That kind of grace is not soft.  It is not naive.  It sees clearly, and it still chooses us. 

The question grace puts in front of us is not whether we deserve it.  We rarely do.  The question is whether we will receive it without flinching, let it do its work, and then turn around and offer it to someone else.  Because grace was never meant to terminate with us.  It was meant to move through us.  If today you are standing in the awareness of something you did wrong, take heart.  The cry does not have to be eloquent.  It just has to be honest.  And God who hears it has never been in the habit of turning away. 

Where in your life have you been afraid to cry out because you knew you did not deserve to be heard?  Who around you may be waiting for the same grace you have received? 

My prayer is we come to God aware of how often we get it wrong.  Thank You for hearing us anyway.  Teach us to receive Your grace without bargaining, and to extend it without keeping score.  Amen.