His Grace is Sufficient.

There was one night when Theo was three, when he woke up at 3:30 am from a nightmare.

He was distraught, crying because he thought I'd broken his knife (he had a little dog-shaped kids' knife that he used at dinner).

He was absolutely adamant that I'd broken it, and he was heartbroken.

I have no idea why that was what he was dreaming about, but he was not happy.

Even at breakfast the next morning, he was still upset about it. I had to show him that it wasn't broken, and even then he thought I must have fixed it.

And I realized I do the same thing with God's grace.

I'm convinced I've broken something in my relationship with God. Not beyond repair, but damaged. That I need to work to restore it, to earn my way back to where I was.

And even when God shows me His grace is intact, freely available, unbroken, I can't fully accept it. I keep believing the nightmare version instead of the truth.

I don't deserve God's grace. I know that's the point, grace is undeserved.

But knowing it theologically and actually receiving it are two different things.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God says: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Grace isn't something I deserve. It's a gift freely given, not because of who I am, but because of who God is.

Living in grace means accepting that I'll never deserve it and receiving it anyway. It means believing that grace isn't depleted by my need for it.

That God's not keeping score.

That His grace meets me exactly where I am: Insufficient, weak, undeserving, and loved anyway.

Today, whatever you think you've broken, whatever you feel you need to earn back, God's grace is already there.

Unbroken. Freely given. Sufficient.