Grace for the Gaps: What It Means to Rest in God’s Grace When We Fall Short
Grace meets us in the space between striving and surrender — and turns our becoming into worship.
Soul Force Sundays
There’s a quiet ache that lives in the space between who we are and who we are called to become.
That space — the gap — can be humbling, even painful. It’s where our ideals meet our limitations, where holy desire collides with human frailty.
We all know the gap. It shows up in the words we wish we could take back, the disciplines we meant to keep, the people we meant to serve better. And when we find ourselves staring into that gap, we often wrestle with the same question:
“How do I hold both grace and growth?”
Grace Is Not Permission — It’s Power
It’s tempting to think of grace as a gentle cushion that softens our failures. But that view sells grace short. God’s grace is not permission to stay where we are — it’s power to rise again.
Paul wrote:
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:10
Grace didn’t make Paul passive. It propelled him.
It was the divine strength within him that fueled his striving toward something higher, purer, eternal.
This is the paradox of grace:
It meets us exactly where we are — and refuses to leave us there.
The Call to Strive
God doesn’t expect perfection in this life, but He calls us to pursue it — not as an impossible standard, but as an act of devotion. Striving toward holiness isn’t about earning love; it’s about honoring the One who already gave it freely.
Jesus taught,
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
— Matthew 5:48
That verse can feel daunting until we understand what it really means. Perfect in the original Greek, teleios, implies maturity, completeness, wholeness — not flawlessness. God invites us into a process of becoming whole, step by step, through His refining grace.
Each day of striving, each small victory, each humble repentance — they all shape our souls toward His likeness.
Resting in Grace While Reaching Higher
Resting in grace doesn’t mean resignation. It means peace in the process. It’s the steady assurance that our worth is not determined by our success, but by our Savior.
When we fall short, we can bring both our effort and our exhaustion to Him — trusting that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
The invitation is not to give up the striving, but to shift how we strive:
Not from self-condemnation, but from gratitude.
Not from fear of falling, but from love of God.
Not from pressure to prove, but from desire to grow.
Grace transforms striving from a performance into worship.
Walking the Narrow Path of Becoming
The journey of discipleship is not a straight line upward. It’s a winding path of surrender and renewal. Some days we advance in faith and virtue; other days we stumble and start again. But each return is a holy act — because grace makes return possible.
Through that continual rhythm of striving and resting, effort and grace, we begin to see God’s hand shaping something eternal in us.
He doesn’t just want our accomplishments; He wants our hearts.
And the heart that keeps coming back — that keeps striving, keeps trusting — becomes stronger, softer, and more aligned with His.
Grace in the Gaps
So, when you find yourself in the gap — between the woman you are and the one you are becoming — don’t despair. That gap is sacred ground.
It’s where grace meets growth.
It’s where striving meets surrender.
It’s where God meets you — not with disappointment, but with delight in your continued becoming.
Let your striving be steady and your resting be real.
Because it’s not about closing the gap perfectly — it’s about walking it faithfully.
Pause + Reflect
Where do you feel the “gap” most right now — in your faith, your habits, or your relationships? How might grace change the way you see that space?
What does striving look like for you this week if it comes from love and gratitude rather than fear or pressure?
How might you extend the same grace to yourself that you so easily offer to others?
