"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ...." (Ephesians 2:8 NIV)

Grace. If you carry away only one thing from these devotionals, my prayer is that it will be a mind-transforming, behavior-altering understanding of God's infinite, indestructible, and immovable grace.

Not just a quick, yet correct sound-bite explanation - like the "unmerited favor of God" - but the deep, ancient meaning of grace that stretches across the depth and breadth and width and height of God's character.

This is on my mind because these devotionals present some high standards for Christian discipleship. My hope is to press us both - myself as well as you - toward an honest assessment of our faith, a deeper commitment to our beliefs, and most importantly a sacrificial, wholly-abandoned love for our Lord.

The standard is high; in fact, it's impossibly high. That's why we need God's grace. I can't, but God can. "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God." (2 Corinthians 3:4-5 NIV)

Although I strive for these standards in my own life, I often fail, but that doesn't mean I should lower the standard or hide behind denial of failure, or that I should settle for a mediocre, warmed-over faith walk. It means I look to the things above, striving to become the man God wants me to be, and getting out of the way so the Holy Spirit can do the work of transformation in my life. Whether I succeed or fail, I fall upon the grace of God. I remain immersed in his grace, knowing I cannot be holy, but the spirit of God within me and the blood of Jesus Christ allow me to connect with a holy God.

If we don't understand God's grace, we stand in danger of growing weary in our walk with God, descending into a quiet resignation that the abundant life is just a notion that describes our "Sweet By and By" future in heaven.

Or, when we fail to embrace God's grace, we're in danger of slipping into legalism, believing we can somehow reach God's holy standard through our own efforts. In effect, we're saying we can achieve godliness without God's power! We behave as if we become one of God's children by the things we do or the things we don't do and not from the extraordinary Grace of God. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIV)

Amen Brother Tom, you've put this together very well.
I would also like to add that we can't assume that God's grace
extends to allowing us to take advantage and sin whenever we
want.
Isaiah 26:10
Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD.

Romans 6:15
[ Slaves to Righteousness ] What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

We must be careful not to return to a sinful state and tempt the Lord or treat His grace as if it weren't our  most precious possession.

We are justified rightious through Christ Jesus and we carry His rightiousness and not our own. We have nothing on our own, it's only through Him that we have grace from God. Our own form of godliness is as filthy rags to God. Nothing we can do would ever be good enough, that's why we so desperately need His grace.

Also we not only receive unmerited favor from God, but even by the stripes Jesus took when he was scourged we WERE (past tense) already healed! That's one of the most powerful and amazing things we can have. We can claim our healing NOW because it was already bought and paid for by Jesus. It's ours to accept and receive through His name!
The only reason we have illnesses and problems is because we fail to ask believing!

Thank you, as you know i only post what is in my heart with a sincere honesty of hope in my character to bring to the table of my friends. If we believe i think is when we see changes in our character to make better life decisions. Un-belivers i think can make practical decisions too but there not what Gods will is for them. But we all have Freedom in Christ. I just choose to live in a way that is pleasing to our Maker. Thank you again for the reply, until tomorrow! God_bless

Thomas, and Rebecca for that matter, good evening to you both - I have just come back from a house eucharist and our priest was talking about God's grace and quoted John's gospel where Jesus talks about how the Jews asked him for a sign that he was the messiah.  That is when Jesus compares himself to a shepherd  and we are his sheep.  He goes on to say that nothing can snatch us out of God's hand and we will have eternal life...I had tears in my eyes at this point because I struggle to accept God's grace as I feel so unworthy.  The priest went on to pray saying that no matter what sin we had committed we were baptised into God's eternal love and no sin, no matter what it was could change that.
Why do you think it is so hard to accept God's grace?  Occasionally completely out of the blue I know I feel it but it seems so hard to accept.  I once asked my own priest that very question and I didn't feel his answer satisfied my question. ( He quoted a psalm that said that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  True, but worthy of grace?)
I would love to hear your thoughts on why we struggle with this.  Many thanks to you and God bless you.

Sue xx

Sue my wonderful friend, thank you for your questions and your feed back with this priest ,he seem to have a good heart also. For your question on "Grace" , it is lavished on us, The grace of God makes our salvation possible. It also makes our growth and development possible. His grace is the source of everything that is good in us. Turn to Ephesians 1:1-10. mark each referance to the word " grace".  Grace  is " giving to someone who deserves Nothing as though he or she deserves everything." and thats what happens to us in Jesus Christ. We deserve nothing, but in him we are given everything. In spite of our sin, we are treated as if we were like Christ himself. This means we are judged not on the basis of our performance, but on the bases of grace. Incredible!  To fear in the world means to be scarred again, to Fear in the Lord means to know what he can do if we dont have compassion, nor conviction in our walk for him. No Love? no friends! my thoughts on this. One last thing , spend some time just trying to comprehend how blessed you are to have been taught about the grace of God. Give praise to God with all your heart. We struggle is that were afraid of comitment, not only in Christ alone, but also in our business'. I hope this helps, i can continue on Grace with more detail, maybe a lesson or something?? Have an awesome day!