No Grace in “I” | by Sarah Weaver

Maybe you have daydreams of your next cigarette break. You want to quit so badly, but you can never seem to get there. Thoughts of guilt fill your mind from the last time you ”tried” to quit, ”I just can’t do it! I try so hard but maybe I’m just not strong enough.” This may be something you shamefully try to hide, but just know that – there is a grace to change.

The example of smoking gives a glimpse of where my life was about 3.5 years ago. When I rededicated my life to the Lord I was 24 and there were A LOT of bad habits attached to my life. I quickly stopped doing many things, but smoking was a struggle. All I wanted was to go after God and do all He put in my heart but I felt so horrible because “I just couldn’t quit.”

The struggle of letting go of “weights” is not confined to just this particular habit, but pertains to many areas of life. For instance, there are relationships that weigh us down and hold us back. Did you ever have a friend that treated you badly? You probably thought, “I don’t know how to confront them, I could never stick up for myself.” Maybe there is a girlfriend or boyfriend that you feel God is leading you to let go of but you keep thinking, ”I can’t let go of him/her, I don’t know what I would do without him/her” – well, God knows the plans He has for you, and there is a grace attached to anything God has put in your heart to do.

Look back at what all the explanations of why you can’t let go of this or that. What do they all have in common? It’s the pronoun “I”. Why do we always think that we’re strong enough to fix our situation?

The Apostle Paul is a great example of the Grace of God working in someone’s life. Look at what he says about what God’s Grace meant to his life.

“But God’s grace has made me what I am, and his grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But it was not I really; it was God’s grace that was with me.)” 1 Corinthians 15:10

One thing to remember is – There is no grace in “I”.