Okay, many of you know that I won a car. If you didn’t, “Hey I won a car.” Through this experience God taught me something really significant about his grace. It was evident that he wanted me to win the car and now I can fully see why.
Since my dad loves the organization, he wanted to give a donation by way of a raffle ticket. My dad who has a the spiritual gift of giving put my name on the single raffle ticket.
Later, I hear my name. I was majorly confused and then later realized that I won the car due to the shouts coming from the banquet hall. People screamed “congratulations” and “you won a car!” One guy even shouted “Can she even drive?”
So, here we were caught in a moral dilemma. My dad, being the generous man he is, is uneasy keeping the car. But one of his friends told us that she was playing around with the raffle tickets before the official drawing took place and she thought that it would be fun to act like Vanna White and draw a raffle ticket. She drew my name for pretend. Of course she put it back and then when it came time for the official drawing, my name was drawn again by a different person.
Hearing this it became clear that God wanted me to win this car because my name was drawn twice...why I would later find out.
He wanted to teach me grace in a tangible way that I would never forget.
Grace had been a concept that I had believed but a concept that was also very hard for me to live out. I am a perfectionist and so I have a very work based mind. When people do things right, it makes me happy and when people do things wrong, I get disappointed. Therefore, seeing Gods grace was warped by my own brain processes.
The day I won the car I was discontent. I wanted more, I was unsettled and so I was seeking to buy more things. That day my dad encouraged me to use the money I wanted to spend to save up for a car. He told me that if I started saving now in the 4 years I could afford a down payment of a used car. At that point, I didn’t realize that cars cost that much.
I also realized I was content with my car. I loved my car. I had a 2004 Jeep Liberty and though it was going to die on me in the next four years but I loved it. My car was the one thing I was content with and so the thought of saving for a new one was hard but it definitely made since.
So the day I was being discontentful, and some may say bratty, God blesses me with a car. What???
As I started digesting the fact that I won a car, I was overwhelmed with the thought I don’t deserve this. No, I don’t need a car; I already have a car. No, a family who can’t afford there next grocery bill should have won this car, or a person who doesn’t have a car should have this car. Not me, I don’t deserve this car.
But God told me. No, you didn’t deserve this car, but you didn’t deserve me either.
Wow. That’s what grace is, God gave us his son when we deserved him least. We weren’t just people that deserved hell, but we were people that were his enemies and we were the people who put him on the cross. Yet, he gave us eternal love.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:4-10)
What a beautiful passage...I love that God has incomparable riches of grace. Man, how sweet it is to taste the beauty of his grace.
But wait it doesn’t end there. So, I won this car and I realize I didn’t just win any car. I won a convertible Camero. Okay, as I began to understand the significance of this car, God showed me something else about his grace.
God doesn’t just save us from hell. He doesn’t just give us a car. He “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” I don’t know about you but I’m pretty content with going to heaven and being with Jesus but no God doesn’t just allow us to have something we don’t deserve, he gives us something we could never gain or earn, righteousness.
As a freshman in college, I can’t afford a Camero. Many people look at me like dang she must be wealthy, and I say “ha I won this...I could never afford this.”
But isn’t this the gospel...we could never afford to live in heaven because that would mean perfection and we are not perfect nor can we ever be perfect despite how hard I’ve tried. God paid our debt therefore we won the rights to eternity with him.
So, get excited!!! If you have Jesus, you just won something that you could never afford. You just won something that is more than enough and more than you could ever need or want.
So, I will boast and say I don’t deserve nothing, because “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
So, boast in your poverty of righteousness because if you have Christ you have won eternity.
Now, God has reminded me that I may have won this car but I didn’t earn it and he reminds me because there is sticker on the side of my car that says Grace. It’s there because the non-profit organization gave it to me but I know why God put it there:) He put it there to remind me of his precious and undeserving grace.
So today, ponder grace. I praise God for the way He taught me grace in a tangible way and I hope He does the same for you.
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