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grace changes everything



I have spent time this week writing about, studying, reading and thinking about grace.  Then I began to go through older notes I have written about the grace of God.  In the rest of this post I have compiled some things that stuck out to me.

And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

Grace is best explained as something that God does.  We can act graciously or with grace, yet our action falls way short of the actions of God.  His grace is radical or maybe even crazy.

"Never forget that grace takes guts, risk and a dash of crazy." Mike Foster

Grace is the “inexhaustible capacity” of God.  As humans we cannot duplicate it or even understand it.  That is why grace is so amazing.  May we allow ourselves to get lost in the overflow of God’s grace and help others experience it like they never have before.  We serve an awesome God who offers us amazing grace!

“Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.”  Jerry Bridges

Where does that leave us in comparison to God’s grace?  The more I study grace, the less I see that I understand grace.  The more I think about God’s grace, the more I am overwhelmed by and compelled toward His grace.

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” Martin Luther

The best way to see how grace lives is to see how Jesus lives through our lives.  Have you ever known someone who changed?  They at one point were selfish, but one day you noticed they were a bit selfless.  Maybe you noticed a person that seemed to be cold but sometime later they were compassionate.  That is the results of grace.

Grace is God living through us.  Grace lives by us allowing God to do what He does best.  Grace is not only a spiritual concept that many people think is unreachable.  Grace is full of meaning.  Grace is Jesus’ life flowing through our lives as we empty ourselves and let Him live.  That is the least we can do after God has done so much for us.

All of this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

We have to live by God's grace.  Nothing more and nothing less.  We need to understand that God deals with us based on His grace, and we are now to deal with others based upon that same kind of grace.  What happens when we do?  People see Jesus.

NOTE: this was first shared in December of 2014

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