Grace—one of the sweetest gifts of God to His children is perhaps also one of the least enjoyed. As a core tenet of Christianity and the foundation of sound theology, grace finds its place in every facet of the Christian life: hymns, Sunday school, and all of life outside the walls of a Sunday gathering.
But let’s pause for a moment to consider: When was the last time you truly experienced the grace of God?
Now, I’m not suggesting that grace is something we chase like a fleeting feeling or equate to the excitement of seeing a new movie. But the unmerited gift of grace should certainly make us feel something, right? After all, it is God’s gift of grace that raises sinners from death to life. It is this same grace that sustains believers through all of life and sanctifies them unto an eternal weight of glory.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith puts it beautifully in chapter 10, paragraph 2. God’s effectual calling is:
“...of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature, being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit.”
This statement reminds us that grace is not something we earn, initiate, or awaken to on our own—it is something done to us and accomplished for us. The reality of this imputation shapes what it means to experience grace—not merely as an emotion but as a divine intervention in the deadness of sin. Grace raises us to the fullness of life, restores us when we are weak, and roots us in the eternal when we are lost in the temporal.
The experience of grace, then, is not limited to moments of emotional ebb and flow. Rather, it is every moment in which we recognize that we live in the light of God’s kindness. That may be during a Sunday sermon, yes—but also in a hospital room, at the end of a long day, or in a quiet evening prayer. Grace is not only theological; it’s personal and experiential.
So why may we so often feel stuck, bogged down by the grind of daily life, or slow to delight in the reality of this grace?
I want to suggest two reasons Christians might struggle to fully enjoy the grace of God:
1. Grace is minimized to a feeling rather than a reality.
If we are alive in Christ, then even our awareness of the brokenness that sin causes is a sign of grace. When we feel the sting of a fallen world, it’s not the absence of grace—it’s an invitation to boast in it (2 Cor. 11:30).
Our life in Christ is itself an act of grace. Therefore, we have reason to cultivate gratitude—not despair. Feelings come and go. The grace of God anchors us to Christ, the cornerstone, allowing us to stand firm on Him rather than the shifting sand of self (Isa. 28:16).
2. We forget the sufficiency of grace.
Grace isn’t a cosmic mist that drifts in occasionally or only answers when we ask. It is a personal, present, and persistent gift from God—for every moment, in every season. By God’s design, we need His present grace far more than we realize. And by His kindness, such grace is supplied more readily than we can comprehend.
2 Corinthians 9:8 says:
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
God’s ability to make grace abound is not just a reminder that He can—it is a promise that He has. We abound only as far as His grace allows, and so we are called to run the race of faith into eternity.
When we feel our insufficiency, we are invited to remember that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). Whether waking in the morning or pushing through the day’s work, God sees us. He is with us—comforting us through His Word, by His Spirit, and in the fellowship of believers.
So, to ask the question again: When was the last time you experienced God’s grace?
More often than not, such experience begins when we reach the end of ourselves—our ability, strength, patience, energy, or sufficiency. Your patience dried up. Your energy failed. And it was there, in that place of need, that you discovered God’s grace had already gone before you.
The opportunity to experience such grace is not waiting on the other side of a trial. It’s not hiding on a mountaintop of joy. It is extended here and now by the loving hand of God. It is secured by the spotless sacrifice of Christ and made present through the helping Spirit by repentance and faith.
God’s grace, in and through all this life has to offer, is the greatest delight for His children. Because this grace is not an abstract theological idea but is a tangible reality for every soul who belongs to Christ, let us then live as those who have received it—humbly, joyfully, and expectantly.