Through His Grace We Are Saved

I love this scripture:

"For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our bretheren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23).

This past month and a half I've been making a conscious effort to put God first in my life, and in doing so, I've become more aware of His influence in the small things around me and inside me.  I love this scripture because it tells us that God's influence is what saves us.  Nephi says that even after all we can do, it is only through Christ's grace that we are saved.  And that is powerful!  Brad Wilcox, a teacher at my university, gave a devotional about Christ's grace, saying that "the Lord does not make up the difference; He makes all the difference."  And I'm so happy that he does.  Christ doesn't meet you close to the finish line of the race of life, carrying you the distance that you were just too weak to make.  He walks with you the whole way; He encourages you; He loves you; and He is the one who makes all the difference in our lives.

Just a short story that relates:

A few members of my family ran a 5k for a Homecoming Race at BYU several years ago.  During the kids' run, my mom happened to witness a boy running to the finish line with his father jogging beside him in the grass by the track.  The boy was exhausted and seemed to just want to be done with the whole thing.  But the father was shouting encouragement at him as the boy ran his race.  "The ground is hot, son.  The ground is hot.  Keep on running.  Keep on going.  Remember, the ground is hot."  As my mom shared this story, I not only realized that "the ground is hot" was encouragement used to motivate the boy to pick up his feet and keep running so he wouldn't touch the "hot" ground, but that the father seemed to be even more excited than the boy about the race.  And I feel like that is similar to our relationship with our Father in Heaven.  I know there are times in my life where I'm like the little boy, just wanting my race to be over so I can rest.  But I believe that God is beside us the whole way, ecstatic about our progress, ever-caring and ever-present, and a comforting, strengthening companion who is involved in our personal struggles and triumphs through the whole thing.

I am grateful that it is through His grace that we are saved.  And I am thankful that I can feel the power of His grace from the start of my mortal race all the way to the end.