Craig Clouston

 Extending Grace

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.

1 Corinthians 15:10

As Jim looked across his desk at Levi, he silently asked God for the wisdom to handle this situation. He’d received several calls from customers that recent orders had been missing multiple items.

Myron from Harvest Equipment had called a few minutes earlier to let Jim know that five different parts had been missing from his order. Jim humbly responded, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, Myron. Tell me what parts were missing, and I’ll ship them to you overnight, no freight.”

Jim had discovered that Levi had been sent home two days ago, midshift, for drinking on the job. Seventeen orders he had sent out had been shipped incomplete. Jim was deciding what to do. He had every right to fire Levi on the spot. But he’d been twenty-one once and remembered an opportunity he’d been given to make good on a poor choice. He talked to Levi about good character and how hard it is to restore once people witness one too many of our poor choices. Jim decided to give Levi another chance and extended God’s grace to someone in desperate need of it.

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Jim was not hasty in dealing with Levi. He had never forgotten how God had extended His precious grace at a crucial time of rebellion in his own life. Without that grace, Jim might never have recognized how dangerous the road was he had started down.

Paul never forgot God’s grace either. He spoke openly and often about his past in a plea for people to stop judging harshly. His instruction to the church at Corinth was to reveal to them how God’s grace not only saves, but also how it can bring about tremendous change in a person’s heart. We have all been necessary recipients of that grace. How can we, in light of that knowledge, refuse to extend it to those who are perishing?

Prayer

“God of mercy, we ask Your forgiveness for the times we have been stubborn and possessive with something so powerful as Your grace. Teach us to be humble; show us how to walk in grace so that we might extend it to others. Amen.”