Praying for Grace
“Grace comes along and straightens me out.” -D. L. Moody. So when you pray ask for God’s Grace.
Because grace is a pure gift, the most meaningful of our encounters with it will probably come at unintended times, when we are caught off-guard, when manipulative systems are are at rest or otherwise occupied. But still we can pray for grace, actively seek it and try to relax our hands to receive it. Oswald Chambers said “Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.”
Prayer for a true gift is a very simple thing — just expressing our desire. As the giver of grace, God deserves a straightforward request. As children of God, we have the right to make that request.
We can also search for grace, in both obvious and hidden places. The obvious places, which avoid or embrace, depending upon our walk with Christ, include the word of God, our community of faith, as well as personal prayer and meditation. The hidden places include times of turmoil and failure, encounter with people we dislike, daily drudgery, and boredom and of course our weakest appetite that makes us sin. And as we pray and search, we can try to relax our hands to receive grace as a gift.
In the middle of beautiful times or ugly ones, peaceful situations or strife, we might just pause, Take a breath and relax. In this little pause, we can look around for God’s Love or we can at least remember his grace. Because “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.”