What comes to your mind when you hear or read the word GRACE? The last few days I’ve been meditating extensively on the subject of GRACE. As you might have notices in your life, when you are set on a certain subject it pop up all over the place. So it has been with GRACE!
This was in the church bulletin:
GRACE IS NOT GRACE IF…
Grace ceases to be grace if God
is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit…
Grace ceases to be grace if God
is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit…
Grace is treating a person without the slightest reference
to abandon whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite
goodness and sovereign purpose of God.
What this means is:
If you sometimes feel you deserve an answer to prayer
or a particular blessing from God because
of your hard work or sacrifice,
you are living by works, not by grace.
Likewise, if you sometimes despair of experiencing
God’s blessing because of the “ought’s” you wished you had done
or the “don’ts” you wish you hadn’t done,
you are casting aside the grace of God.
GRACE is just that: GRACE!
By no merit whatsoever of our own do we have all the wondrous provisions of God lavished upon us, being the foremost the salvation of our soul!
I used the Concordance on my PC Bible program and came up with (and wrote down in my journal) around 100 references to GRACE in the New Testament. I went to Google and someone must have done a better job of counting—they came up with 131! It’s more than enough for me.
The Lord told the apostle Paul, “My GRACE is sufficient for you!”
What I am referring to here by the word GRACE is the unmerited favor of God. There is absolutely nothing we can do to deserve it.
Let me quote you some of the highlighted references, some extra special phrases that I like to “chew” on. It almost sounds sacrilegious. But I’m not being irreverent. It’s like the chewing gum I keep circulating over and over in my mouth, but this I keep in my mind and my soul.
God’s ABUNDANT provision of grace (Romans 5:17).
God can make all grace ABOUND (2 Corinthians 9:8).
The RICHES of God’s grace that he LAVISHED on us (Ephesians 1:6).
The INCOMPARABLE riches of his grace (Ephesians 2:7).
The grace of Jesus was poured ABUNDANTLY (1 Timothy 1:2).
From the FULLNESS of his grace we have received ONE BLESSING AFTER ANOTHER (John 1:16).
This got me started on The ABC’s of Grace. Give me a couple of days. Do your own study. Look up the word GRACE. Start rejoicing over the GRACE that asks nothing more than that you receive it!
GRACE, mercy and peace from God be with you.
