The grace of God is infinite and eternal. As it had no beginning, so it can have no end, and being an attribute of God, it is as boundless as infinitude.
~ A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)
Grace is the power of Christ to do God’s will.
~ James Ryle
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
~ 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
The New Testament is saturated with both the words and the meanings behind them.
GRACE!
Grace is getting what we do not deserve, and could never earn.
Grace is not falling into something horrible, simply because G_d choses to keep us safe (“there, but for the grace of god, go I”).
Grace is being the recipient of His Lovingkindness in our circumstances just because He wants to bless us!
Grace is G_d pouring out His vision for our life on us, and then giving us the ability to choose His ways so as to fulfill that same vision (Ephesians 1:2-8).
Grace is G_d opening up His real storehouse of weapons for Righteousness and Holiness and Purity and Love and Goodness and Wisdom and Beauty… all of this. They’re the best ever made. Ever. They are spiritual weapons for wielding incredible cosmic power for His Glory. And we get to use them.
And let us be clear, beloved, that when He sets work before us to do, He is going to provide the means and measures to get things done.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may 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
In, by and through His grace, we become courageous, heart-full men and women. We begin to move with epic strength in a world wallowing in weakness. We become a problem for evil. And this is very good news for both us and the world in which we live.
And never forget something friends. As we walk down the path He has set before us, walking in the strength He gives us, fulfilling His purposes – this also yields the mirror image of grace in our lives.
PEACE!
Peace always follows His mercy and grace flowing towards us. The epic strength He pours into our lives allows us to see the challenges of life for what they really are: They are nothing to an infinite G_d. And this realization allows us to see that there really is no conflict in the will of G_d. It all flows in the right and righteous direction it has ever flowed. And this is peace with Him: Yielding to the flow of His everlasting Goodness and Love and Mercy and Grace in our lives.
So, G_d’s grace is (wonderfully!) the power to do the things He wants us to do. But, in the doing, we are not somehow spent and left empty a the end. NO! He back-fills that work with the most delicious and quiet finish – His peace.
It is right here reader. We are swimming in it. Allow Him – even tonight – to enable you to do what He has set before you, and to find the peace you have been searching for since you can ever remember even looking for anything.
Grace and peace beloved.
All men who live with any degree of serenity live by some assurance of grace.
~Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
Another epic post, Makala! I love what Paul says: "I'm the least of the apostles, but I am what I am [great] because of the grace of Jesus Christ. " Amazing!