Grace

Maybe there is no more beautiful word in all of the English language than "grace."  For the Christian it is the free gift of God, the giving of favor to us that is not deserved.  We don't deserve the benefits, the salvation, that He offers.  We haven't earned it, aren't entitled to it; but we get it.

Oh, there are some qualifications: We have to be Christians, believers, followers.  We have to dedicate our lives to Him.  We have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  And we have to try to live as He lived when He was here on this earth.

I think of the Prodigal Son as recorded in Luke 15.  He was a bad son.  He left home and took his inheritance with him.  He wasted his life in partying....and nothing good.  One day he realized that he had lost it all and followed the wrong path.  He decided that he should go home and ask his father to just let him work as a servant, not as a son but as one of the lowly workers around the place.  But his father gave him grace, letting him come back as a son...and with a great celebration for his return. 

This is how our father extends grace to us.  We haven't lived a perfect life; have turned away from God many times, ignoring what was right and doing what we wanted.  But God loves us and accepts us back.  We could use the term "mercy,"  but grace goes even further than mercy.  God's grace is everything to us, salvation to us who cannot save ourselves. 

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12, asked God to relieve him of his "thorn in the flesh,"  some ailment that was a severe bother to him.  The Lord answered by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you."  All else pales in comparison to His grace.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:4-10

Praise God for His wonderful grace.  Thanks for reading again.  God bless you with His grace!