Grace (Thomas Nelson, 2012)
The full title of this book by Max Lucado is Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine. Pastor Lucado begins with the assertion that God answers the messes of life with one word: grace. He then defines grace as “the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.” Jesus not only stoops to meet us where we are, but He also rises to our defense in defiance of Satan. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to trust our Advocate, not our Accuser. Furthermore, we personally must appropriate the cross as God’s gift to us, not simply as His gift to the world.
Jesus, through His death and resurrection, welcomes us to the Land of No More- no more battle fatigue from taking on our own burdens. We can rest from our struggles in the arms of Jesus. While retaliation may be appealing, its shallowness pales in comparison to the truth: Jesus has the answer. Although others may see us as marginalized and discarded- a view we may well affirm- God sees us as a masterpiece about to happen. As God applies grace to our wounds with His probing and healing touch, our honest confession enables reliance on God’s grace and trust in His goodness.
Max concludes that “to accept grace is to accept the vow to give it.” Cascading grace occurs as God’s grace overflows to us and we, in response, extend His grace to others. Through grace we trust God’s hold on us more than our hold on God. God is forever faithful even though we often fall far short. Although life’s wounds mute God’s song of hope and life, as we again hear and heed His voice something in us will awaken. We will begin to sing again. Pastor Lucado ends with this description of grace:
“More verb than noun. More present tense than past tense. Grace didn’t just happen. It happens.”
