Our hearts are subtle and mysterious realms, swept over by the storms of grand emotions.
Why is it that the same offensive words from the lips of a friend can be more easily forgiven than when uttered by a person outside the orbit of our love?
Love holds within it the quality of grace, both when we receive it from the Father, and when we extend it to His children. God chose to love us “while we were yet sinners”—to extend His grace in spite of our offensiveness. But we routinely show that grace to only those who love us in return.
The difference lies in God’s amazing decision to love the entire world as though we had always been His friends. He sovereignly declares that all His children can also be His friends because of Jesus’ sacrifice: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor 5:19).
Can loving God expand the orbit of our love? How do we learn God’s graciousness for those who never earned our care—or even wounded us in spite?
We pray for God’s own love to take from us our stony hearts, and give us His great, principled affection for those who still offend us. God’s daily miracle of grace gives each of us—and everyone—the fullness of forgiving love.
So stay in grace. -Bill Knott
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: HELD BY GRACE (May 14, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: WHAT CAN WASH AWAY MY SIN? (May 07, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: FORGIVENESS ON A STRING (April 30, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: THE GROWING SEASON (April 23, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: THE CONFIDENCE OF GOD (April 16, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: NO TRAVELING ALONE (April 09, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: HAIL THE DAY (April 02, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: UNBROKEN LOVE (March 26, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: NOT FOR SALE (March 19, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: THE HOUSE THAT GRACE BUILDS (March 12. 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: A NEW ECONOMY (March 05, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: THE FLOWERING OF GRACE (February 26, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: GETTING WHAT WE DON’T DESERVE (February 19, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: MANNA IN OUR WILDERNESS (February12, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: ASSUMED IDENTITY (February 05, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: WHY GRACE MAKES US UNCOMFORTABLE (January 29, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: REASSURING RHYTHMS (January 22, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: RECLAIMING OUR IDENTITY (January 15, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: LOVE THAT WON’T LET GO (January 08, 2021)
Bill Knott's GraceNotes: RENEWAL IN THE RUINS (January 01, 2021)
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