For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, Eph 2:8
As I was reading this morning I came across this scripture that hit me like a ton of brick. Eph 2:8. This scripture stuck out to me because it was so simple yet profound. “For by his Grace you have been saved”. The reason why that stuck out was because I can hear myself in times of situation praying to God to deliver me out this situation, heal my body or give me a financial break through but I never prayed for grace. When I was younger I thought grace was praying before you ate. How many times have you been somewhere or even home and you heard someone say, “Did you say grace over your food?” So this had me to look up what Grace really was. When I looked it up in Webster’s Dictionary it said “Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.”
The thing that stuck with me the most out of this definition was the FREE unmerited LOVE and FAVOR of GOD. This really put a whole lot of things in perspective for me. Now, when I see the word grace used in the bible I just input these words and things become alive. Like…
“For by his free grace (free unmerited love and favor) you have been saved through faith….”
Eph 2:8
Or this one…
And He said to me, "My grace (free unmerited love and favor) is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness..."
(2Co 12:9)
This has even changed the dynamics of songs for me, like “Amazing Gace”. The words say: “Amazing grace (free unmerited love and favor of God) how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..”. All I can do now is thank God for his Grace (free unmerited love and favor). Now knowing how deep the grace (free unmerited love and favor) of God goes it began to humble me, because even in the mess of a life that I can create sometimes he still has Grace (free unmerited love and favor) for me. I know I don’t deserve His grace (free unmerited love and favor) but he still sees fit to give it to me. One of my favorite scriptures right now is:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
(Php 2:5)
If the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in us then we need to exercise that same grace (free unmerited love and favor) towards everyone. Think about your life and some of the things that people may have said or done to you that required you to have grace towards them but you didn’t. I believe that God puts certain situations and people in our life so that other people can see him work through us. That’s why it so important to always act in the grace (free unmerited love and favor) that God has given us so that through God we can change lives! So when you pray, pray that God’s grace would surround you that people would see God’s grace on you and also that you will have God’s grace with you interacting with other people!
God Bless you and Stay in the Race.
Pastor Jonathan Roundtree
