Living With Grace

Grace is a power from God given to me and you as a gift. This power of grace is made perfect in our weakness.

 

What exactly is grace? 

What exactly is this power of grace given from God?

How can we use grace to benefit us? 

How can we use God's grace to fulfill the will of God?

How to activate God's Grace?

 

When I first think of grace, I think of a grace period, or even the act of being gracious or graceful. These ideas of a brief time of pause I didn't deserve reminds me of a grace period. For instance, the grace period we get when we forget to turn in a school assignment or the grace period we get to renew our tag registration after the day has passed.  Grace can also be the act of being poised, polite, etiquette, and a resemblance of the light of God reminds me of being gracious and graceful. I remember being graced by a sister in church. It was her presence, that the very essence of her being flowed with a unique love I almost thought she touched me. She did in fact touch my heart. She was slow to speak, her smile could light up a room, and she looked at me with kind eyes. The grace of God was with her. She had a head covering over her head. It was believed in old times and even til this day that a head covering signified the grace of God's covering over your life. It was believed that God's grace is a covering over our lives and by covering our heads it would help us stray away from sinning and be without sin. That Gods's grace would guide our paths and this covering of our heads would allow us to be slow to react.

Grace is not just a gift given to us, it is also a gift we give to others. Being slow to speak and slow to react is a sign of grace. This brief pause in a conversation and interaction gives a moment to breathe in some fresh air, to look into the eyes of the one you are speaking to, to give remembrance to God's presence in this moment of time. Grace can settle a disagreement. Grace can save you from reacting out of character. Grace is God's goodness and peace made manifest. 

Grace essentially is God's presence with us. it's not just a covering of God. It's God's essence present. It is God's being radiating through us. It's being tuned in with the frequency of God.  When God orders you to do this, you do it. When God orders you to speak something, you say it. When God says go this way, you go. This power of Gods's grace is the wielding power of guidance in our life in order to do the very will and enact the very will of God which has been placed in our hearts to do. The grace of God is a gift freely given to us as a power to wield in our daily lives. The grace of God is a power that must be activated. Yes it is freely given, however, we must be in tune with the grace of God in order for the power of grace to be of effect and effective. Can we listen to a radio just because someone has given us a radio station and it is freely given? If the radio station is not plugged in, turned on, the antenna is active, and the station is turned on a radio station, how then can the radio be of effect? Even once the radio is turned on some radio stations may have more static than others. When we speak to God we want a clear signal, this clear radio frequency is our signal we can clearly hear the radio station; similar to our signal we are clearly hearing from God when we let go of our bad habits and sinful ways that transgress away from the word of God.

Grace comes through faith and faith comes from the word of God. Therefore in order to activate the grace over our lives we must first believe the word of God, have faith in the word of God and grace is activated. As simple as it sounds we must remember that believing the word of God and having faith in it means prophesying the word of God for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God so we must speak the word of God over our life not just think it to be true. We must also remember faith without works is dead and by the fruits we will know a tree. Therefore let us not just speak the word and say we have faith in our hearts, yet let our lives manifest the fruits of God which has been placed in our hearts to do so. May our lives represent the creative love of God. By spreading the "good news" we are fulfilling the will of God!

Living with grace is a daily lifestyle. Everyday there are new temptations. Temptations may come as people and even thoughts! Being tempted to overeat, being tempted to share some juicy gossip, being tempted to curse and have road rage while driving are all small examples of how we can easily be tempted in every day life. We are asked to be steadfast in God's word that we may be tuned into His frequency so well that when temptations comes knocking on the door of our hearts, it can no longer cause us to stray away from the word God has declared over our lives.

 

Bible Verses:

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Acts 20:24

 

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:14

 

 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

 

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:14

 

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

Romans 6:15

 

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

1 Peter 1:13

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23-24

 

So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:21

 

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:4-5

 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

 

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

Titus2:11-12

 

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

2 Timothy 1:9

 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him!

Isaiah 30:18

Be steadfast and very determined to keep and to do everything that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so that you do not turn aside from it to the right or the left

Joshua 23:6

Romans 4:16

Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

 

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 

Romans 10:17

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

 

Hebrews 11:3

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Mathew 26:41

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.