Verse: Romans 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Devotion
If you are a Christian, you most likely know that it is "by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:8). Essentially this is pointing out the fact that we can do nothing with our own actions to affect our salvation. We can't merit a restored relationship with God. We can't work hard enough, observe moral law well enough, or be good enough to be saved. It is by grace. The grace of God extends to sinners like you and I and calls us righteous because of Jesus.
However, that grace doesn't stop at the salvation moment. Paul tells us here in Romans 5 that this same grace through faith is how we continue to stand. The "grace in which we now stand" is an acknowledgement that while we are definitely growing in our faith and becoming more like Jesus, we still cannot earn God's love or favor as Christians by our good behavior. We have peace with God because of grace.
Why is this important? It can be easy to fall into the trap that we need to perform once we get saved. And what that leads to is when we inevitably fall into sin, then we feel we must punish ourselves, stay distant from God, and then somehow "earn our way back" to him. This simply isn't true. While a natural consequence of sin is separation from God, Jesus took that consequence in himself on the cross. When we repent and confess our sin, God brings swift forgiveness and healing. We aren't required to pray a certain amount of times, or wait a certain amount of time, till we feel better about ourselves.
No, we stand now in the same grace we stood when we first accepted Jesus. His forgiveness is not based on our merit. We can't earn his love. We can't earn a sense of closeness. He has already done the work. He has bridged the gap, healed the divide, and come across to our side. Yet we continually invent ways for us to try and earn it. Today let the lesson be to relax and sit back into God's grace for you. You aren't perfect, he knows that. That's why Jesus came. Stand today in his unearned, unmerited favor, love, and grace into your life.