1 Corinthians 15:10 (NCV) “But God’s grace has made me what I am, and his grace to me was not wasted.”

As I was reading through 1 Corinthians 15, I thought about Paul’s words “God’s grace has made me what I am.” Isn’t that so true? Every morning we wake up it’s because God has so graciously allowed us another day. I had to go to my Bible dictionary (Nelson’s Compact Bible Dictionary) and look up the word “grace”.

Grace – Favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth of merit of the one who receives it and in spite of what the person deserves.

Grace is given to us so freely, not because of who we are or what we’ve done, but because of God’s great love for us. As I read through the Bible, I can look at Paul’s life and see how God’s grace plucked him out of a life of persecuting and basically destroying the Christian church to a life of encouraging and building churches in his known world.

We might look at Paul and think he certainly didn’t deserve God’s grace; like all, Paul deserved death. (The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23). But something miraculous happened to Paul on the road to Damascus that changed his life.  He bumped into the risen Lord (Acts 9:3 – 5) and experienced His grace first hand.

The gift of grace was given to Paul that day and he received it through repentance and faith. God had a purpose for Paul, just like God has a purpose for each and every one of us. After his Damascus road experience, Paul went from persecuting Christians to telling anyone who would listen of Christ’s redeeming love. His life was changed because he allowed God’s grace to wash over him and transform him into what God intended for him to be.

God’s grace abounds to all of us. Have you received His grace and are you allowing it to transform the way you live?

Related scripture: Ephesians 1:7 – 8