A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF GRACE
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT
TODAY’S THOUGHT
Let’s talk about grace. I was raised in a church at a time when they didn’t talk a lot about grace. Most of the sermons were about the things we weren’t supposed to do to be a Christian. There were a lot of “thou shalt not” preaching. Every minister seemed to have his list of deadly sins that had to be avoided to be loved by God.
The early concept I had of God was that He was the Judge in the Sky with a big club waiting for me to do something wrong so He could hit me. My job in this version was to be sure I did more good things than bad so I was able to go to heaven when I died. I had to earn my way into the grace of God.
What a horrible view of grace. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. That means we cannot earn it. It is an expression of God’s love to us in our fallen sinful, selfish behavior. It is freely given. It is a GIFT!
Some might say you have to be careful talking about grace because then people might just allow sin in their lives. I don’t believe that. I believe the more we understand the grace of God the more we fall in love with God, and we serve God out of love not out of duty.
I love my wife. I want to please my wife because I love her—not because I’m scared of her. That would be a horrible relationship to live under.
During this season of prayer and fasting let’s ask the Father God to reveal to us a better understanding of His grace. Let’s have a deeper revelation of grace not only for ourselves but for others. Let’s decide to be people full of grace. That could lift a heavy burden of trying judge others and us.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Holy Spirit please help me to have a better understanding of God’s grace. Help me to receive Your grace. Help me to give grace to others.
“Scroll down to share what you feel God is saying based on today’s reading.”
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