1280) I have set a goal in this new year to study and understand grace a little more. As is true with all things we ponder deeply, you become aware of examples of the subject you are researching that you may have not noticed before. For example, if you spend much of your time thinking about yellow cars (as I read about recently), then when you actually see a yellow car, you take notice. The same is true with my study of grace; I see it more often when it shows up, and I saw it in 2 Timothy 2:8.

Just a reminder, grace is receiving a blessing (or something good), and in this case, from God, when you don’t deserve it. This verse in Timothy points out that Jesus is a descendant of David. Bingo! As soon as I read this, my mind went to the grace David received.

Remember with me that David was a great man of God; one who followed him wholly and yet David was an adulterer and a murderer. David allowed himself to take each step away from the commands of God, first by watching a woman who was not his wife bathe, asking about her, inviting her over, sleeping with her, deciding to bring her husband home to blame him for this woman’s pregnancy and when that didn’t work, David ordered the husband murdered.

If I started out the above list of downward steps David made with adultery and murder, many would think, Well, he certainly is not a man who pleases God. But if we look closer, we can see these bad choices were the result of small steps in the wrong direction.

Though the baby conceived in adultery died, God extended his grace to David and allowed Jesus’ blood line to come from the union that began in adultery. On top of this, God called David, a man after God’s own heart.

This is grace. Can you see it?