Unseen winds refresh our planet daily. Similarly, the grace of God is invisible to our eyes. Yet, we see evidences of wind all around us: clouds move across the sky, leaves rustle on trees, and waves of wheat in fields yield to its mighty force. So, too, we can see the evidence of God’s grace all around us.

Just as God’s grace is revealed and exalted in the Law, so also His grace is a repeated theme on the lips of the prophets of Israel. The prophets spoke often of grace, and they took care to remind God’s people of His unmerited favor bestowed freely upon them. In Isaiah 30:18, the prophet gave comfort to the afflicted nation with a call to observe and give thanks for the manifold grace of God. “And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.”

After this initial promise that Jehovah is “gracious,” Isaiah elevated the tone of his words; in the next verse, the prophet declares that the Lord will be “very gracious” to them! Then the prophet went on to list several important manifestations of the grace of God; these evidences are just as true in our own day as they were in the days of Isaiah.

Answered Prayer
“For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee” (Isaiah 30:19, emphasis added). Every time God answers our prayers, it is evidence of His grace. He is not only gracious; He is “very gracious.” When He hears our prayers, He answers. While He does not always answer according to our own will and timing, He does answer according to His Own gracious will and pleasure.

Revealed Scripture
“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers” (Isaiah 30:20). Despite the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the oppression of foreign rule, God did not leave Israel without their chief treasure, the Holy Scriptures. God gave them teachers—teachers that they could hear and see, and teachers who opened to them the revealed Word of God. The Bible that you hold in your hand is one of the most tangible items of evidence of God’s grace!

Divine Direction
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). Not only has God manifested His grace by giving mankind the Scriptures, He also has graciously guided us by His Spirit. The Bible would be a meaningless book without the Spirit of God to open it to our understanding, to interpret it to our hearts, and to guide our steps in the path of obedience. God’s grace speaks firmly to our hearts, telling us in the words of Isaiah, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

Repentance
“Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence” (Isaiah 30:22). It is the grace of God that grants us repentance, that teaches us to hate our sin, and that turns our steps toward the paths of righteousness. As sinners from birth, we naturally love our sin, but the grace of God teaches us to hate it.

Food
“Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan” (Isaiah 30:23–24). How simple and grand! The grace of God not only extends to our spiritual needs but also to our physical needs. It is customary to use the term “say grace” to give thanks to God before partaking our food. God’s gracious provision of food is a daily reminder of His grace that we should never take for granted.

Water
“And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall” (Isaiah 30:25). The priceless treasure that sets our planet apart in the solar system is water. Even when the towers fall, even when Jerusalem falls, the springs in the hills still send forth water. Water is a daily reminder of God’s grace. We should never raise a glass of water to our lips without recognizing the source of our sustenance.

Healing
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26). God does not promise to heal us from everything, but every time that we are indeed healed, it is the gracious hand of God that does the healing. As our Great Physician, He is the source of light and health.

Consider this: If you have ever experienced the power of answered prayer, if you have a Bible in your hand, if you have food on your table, if you have water in your glass—then you have abundant evidence that God is a God of grace. May we all learn to see the various evidences of His grace and thank Him. Indeed, we can proclaim with Isaiah that God is “very gracious”!