Table of Contents
What Is Grace?
Hebrews 13:9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
Grace is not some form of spiritual substance or stuff that God stores in heaven, and when we ask, he gives it to us.
Always remember that grace is when God gives Himself to us when we don’t deserve Him. For instance, although God was holy, he chose to give us His Holy Son so that His Son could take away our sins and reconcile us with Him, all though we didn’t deserve that honour from God.
According to Ephesians 2:8-9, 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.
So, you see, it is a gift, and God is not only the giver, He is the gift. God graces us with Himself. It is God granting us something we could never have without Him giving it to us.
How does Grace Work?
Grace is a game changer, it saves us and, at the same time, sanctifies us. That is why 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by God’s grace or kindness I am what I am, and his grace or kindness shown to me was not wasted. Instead, I worked harder than all the others—not I, of course, but God’s grace or kindness that was with me.”
God doesn’t want us to think that we did it by our own strength, but He wants to remind us that it is He who does everything for us. We see that although Paul did so many great works, it wasn’t him who did them by his strength but it was the power of God working through them, and that is why kept reminding him through all his afflictions, as you can see in
2 Corinthians 12:8–9, Three different times, I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me.
Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Let Jesus work in you and through you and you will do greater works. You see, that is why Jesus said to you and me to cast our burdens on him, for He cares for us (Psalm 55:22). Don’t try to do it alone; otherwise, you will fail.
Brethren, Wherever God reigns, grace pours like water, and it flows to the lowest part of those places. If it were an ocean, we’d all be sinking. Since all of us are born broken and we need God to mend us then the grace of God is the glue with the sacred strength to do that. So, Brethren, remember that your 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 for it.
We should know that grace isn’t a little prayer we chant before receiving a meal. It’s a lifestyle, it needs to be the air we breathe, the atmosphere we live in, whether in the church or at home. The law tells us how crooked we are, and it came along to straighten us out. The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. When in doubt, always remember that thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge.
When I hear Christians say, “I don’t do this, and I don’t do that, and I am following a set of rules, Our church does this (Mark 7:6-13)” I immediately recognize that they know very little about the grace of God. They are trying to live the Christian life in their strength (Zechariah 4:6).
GOD’S UNLIMITED GRACE
The church is the primary arena in which we learn that glory does not consist in what we do for God but in what God does for us. Questions like What is the meaning of life? Why do we have so many wasted years of life? Why do we make so many poor choices in life? God answers all these questions and much more with one word: “grace. “We all face difficult times. It is only through it that we have the strength to endure. For it is given not because we have done good works, but so that we may be able to do them.
You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another. But remember that grace is free, but it doesn’t mean it is cheap, for God bought us with a high price (1 Corinthians 6:20), and that price was the death of the cross. You cannot earn that or deserve it.
It is the very opposite of merit… It is not only an undeserved, unmerited, unearned, and unequal favour, but it is a favour, shown to the one who has deserved the very opposite.
Don’t allow the devil to flip God’s script in your mind and allow you to believe that you’ll never be better than your past! Remember, the will of God will not take you where he cannot keep you. Brethren know that extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. Noah found it in the eyes of the LORD.” [Genesis 6:7-8] Brethren, now that we know what grace is we are going to strive to attain it in Jesus name!
Pastor Nathaniel