Grace Card…? Priceless

One of my coworkers slipped up and forgot to do something he promised me he would do. It was important to me because I wanted to make a change, and he was my last backup. But by the time I got to him about it, the issue had diffused somewhat and there was even reason to believe that the end result might have been better without the change I wanted. (It was one of those times you wonder if God meant for him to forget. It is true that sometimes God’s will incorporates our failures.) My friend apologized profusely and I told him not to give it another thought, that I was starting to even have second thoughts about the change I asked him to carry out. To which he replied, “Well, thanks for using your Grace Card on me today.”

Grace Card. I like that. I had never heard that before. He had never said that before. We laughed, and then I thanked him for my next devotional idea! (Now we have two positive things that came out of one failure. Two for one… that’s not bad!)

Any relationship is going to require a Grace Card. That’s because we are destined to fail each other over and over again. We will fail because we are fallible, and we will fail without even trying, because one’s expectations are too high for the other to meet.

One of Christ’s disciples once asked Him how many times he should forgive his brother, “Seven times?” he suggested. That probably seemed like a lot to him. “Try seventy times seven,” Jesus replied (Matthew 18:22 The Message).

Now I don’t think Jesus meant by this that we were to literally count up all the times we have forgiven someone and as soon as we get to 491, say “Okay, that’s it. I’m not forgiving you anymore!” I think what He meant was: if you’re going to put a number on it, make sure it’s too big to keep track of.

Or better yet, how about a credit card with an unlimited account? An account Jesus opened on the cross? An account we can draw on as much as we need, for ourselves, and for those who offend us, or sin against us, or disappoint us, or let us down? You’ve already got one if you’ve been to the cross. Why not activate it today?

Grace Card. No relationship is possible without one. Don’t leave home without it. (Don’t go home without it, either. That’s probably where we need it the most!)

by John Fischer