76 Years Of God’s Steadfast Grace

I am 76 years old. My life has not been based upon luck, but on God’s steadfast grace. I have been sustained in times of great financial need and unemployment, physical illnesses, and in times of emotional distress. Over the years I have experienced depression, marital strife, anger issues, and I have to admit, have had ungodly obsessions. It has been a struggle to maintain a holy life at times, repeating the same bad habits over and over. Life was never meant to be easy, especially when we struggle as Christians between our new and old natures.

God’s grace brought me through some very low times in my life, like the time I was let go from a church staff with no warning and no justifiable explanation, and due to no fault of my own, finding out later that the whole situation could’ve been handled with a simple conversation.

Another time in my life I had three physical afflictions in a row over the space of about a year and a half. God’s grace brought me through.

There was another time of great delight, however, when I had no dependable car to drive, no money to fix it up and no money to buy another. My phone rang, and a friend out of the blue offered to give me a car. This was a sheer act of God’s grace.

I could go on and on in more detail about how God has revealed his grace to me through all these years. More importantly, however, is how much I have grown emotionally and spiritually as a result of all the things that I have been through. I have been a slow learner, but God has been very patient with me. You might have heard the saying, “God is not finished with me yet.” God uses our circumstances and adversity to build godly character. Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God uses broken people, but He matures us along the way, and it takes a lifetime for Him to do it. His grace can overrule my stupidity, bad decisions, poor judgment, and anything else that I may feel may have set my life in the wrong direction.

This quote from writer, Paul, David Tripp, sums up my life and maybe yours also: “How can you and I not be grateful for God’s patience with us? He doesn’t demand of us instant maturity.  He doesn’t require that we get it right quickly. He doesn’t teach us a lesson just once. He comes to us in situation after situation, each controlled by His sovereign grace, each designed to be a tool of transformation, and He works on the same things again and again. I don’t like to have to repeat myself. I tend to want the people around me to understand quickly. I am grieved that my heart is still not like that of my Savior. So, God’s care cannot be detached from His patience. It is His tender willingness to wait that allows His powerful grace to finish its transforming work. Thank God today for that patience. It is your hope. And as you are thanking Him, pray that He will make you more like Him-willing to give time for His mercy to do its work.” *

The biggest act of God grace is that He has given me the gift of writing; to be able to share on this platform my life experiences with a global audience, all bound up with God’s steadfast grace over 76 years.

*Paul David Tripp, “New Morning Mercies, A Daily Gospel Devotional, Crossway Publishers, 2014, September 23 Devotional