There But For The Grace Of God Go I

 While watching the evening news, we often hear about a disaster caused by someone driving while drunk or high, or we might learn the next grim statistic in the crisis around the world due to opioid addiction.  The following slogan has meaning for many of us who are alive and breathing and sober, "There but for the grace of God go I."  At each meeting we attend we hear the following words read from "How It Works": “Remember that we deal with alcohol – cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power – that One is God.  May you find Him now!"  

 By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.  God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.  (1 Corinthians 15:10, Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV) 

 We can hardly imagine a God who is so good, so kind, and so generous that He would reach out to us in our brokenness and offer to make something beautiful of our lives.  Yet God is doing that all the time and we are living clean and sober today as examples of His grace. Jesus took the penalty for our sin and brokenness on Himself when He died on the cross so we could be forgiven and healed.  That's the grace exchange.  That is God's generosity to you and I which we do not deserve, but which is graciously given because of Jesus.

Prayer:  God of love and grace, Thank You for caring for me when my life was a wreck.  I know I need Your wisdom today, and every day, to make the choices that take me forward in recovery so I can effectively live the life You created for me.  Help me to make "grace exchanges" each day so that my brokenness and sin go, and Your love and grace fills me up.  Amen