Hope – In Grace

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant

with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (1 Tim.1, 14)

Note how important the consequence of these three expressions is: grace, faith and love.

First comes grace as an opposition to our personal value and as a satisfaction to all of our wishes and needs. All of our hope is in grace of God only, which is given to us, unworthy, by the love and mercy of God.  Christ Himself is a live embodiment and clear expression of this love.

Apostle Paul, when remembering the story of his conversion, assigns it only to the grace of God. He says that the “grace was abundant”; even though his sin was great, but the love of God exceeded it and covered it with abundance of its grace. Apostle Paul never forgot about it. The recognition of this was the base of his great humility. And faith came into his heart in place of disbelief: not only general, unconscious feeling of hope in God, but live, firm faith into live Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the love to the Savior lit up together with this burning faith. Let us too pray to the Lord for these gifts, and the grace, that will be revealed in our hearts will fill all our being. It will change everything for us, soften our sorrows and give us strength.

(Translated by Tatiana Rozzell from “Every Day is a Gift from God. Diaries of an Orthodox Priest”, author unknown)