A while back, I witnessed an incident at work that caused me to thank the Lord from the bottom of my heart for His love and undeserved grace.

I work at the Public Library, and there are instances when it’s difficult to find a requested item for a patron. On one of these rare occasions, a coworker of mine, realizing how much this one young lady needed a book, went ahead and bought the book herself online. However, when she presented it, the young lady was so overcome with gratitude, she insisted on paying for it. My coworker assured her that no reimbursement was necessary, it was a gift and she was simply happy to do it. But the patron could not seem to wrap her mind around this; how could an “almost stranger” do this for her? After all, she had done nothing extra to deserve it.

Because of her inability to accept the situation for what it was, I could clearly see my coworker becoming frustrated. I was too, until the Holy Spirit dropped into my spirit that as Christians, this is exactly how we treat God’s gift of salvation sometimes, forgetting that there is nothing more that we ourselves need to do to obtain or keep it. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 (KJV)

Yet, there are days when we find ourselves unable to grasp this wholeheartedly, and so we go about trying to dole out payments through good works and deeds. I couldn’t help but wonder, did this frustrate our Heavenly Father in the same way that it frustrated my coworker? To see us frantically running around trying to earn His favor and repay Him for His kindness toward us; even though that kindness was a gift freely given simply because He loves us. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (KJV)

Think about the last gift you received from a friend or family member, and your response to it and them. You probably felt happy, grateful, touched, humbled and a number of other emotions; but I’m almost certain that not once did the thought of repaying them for the gift ever crossed your mind.

The gift of salvation is free; we know this in our heads and in our hearts; we read it in His Word, and yet we tend to have a difficult time sometimes reconciling it and living as such. Finding it easier instead to adopt a brownie point system to keep score of our rights and wrongs least we should somehow “fall out of favor” with God.

But our Heavenly Father does not keep a score board, checking on our performance at the end of every day or week so He can add or take points away. This is what man does, it is not God’s way. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts our thoughts. Also, our salvation is not reversible based on what we do or do not do. His Word says that it is paid for in full by His precious blood, and His Word my friend, is forever settled in heaven.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35,38,39 KJV)