Unforced Rhythms of Grace

I hope todays post will be a bit more comprehensible than my last post, which got quite messy. I wanted to share what was spoken about a few weeks back at church, where they talked about understanding grace.

Im currently reading an awesome book by John Bevere titled "Extraordinary" and it defines grace as "God's unmerited favor". I really like this definition as it really sums up an aspect of our relationship with God which can be easily misunderstood by Christians.

Everything about God and our relationship with God is to set us up to win. God has never planned for any of us to fail, He wants to see us succeed in our purpose and pursuits. But sometimes we can bring the "law" into our relationship with God and the we begin to see our imperfections. We can fall into the trap that we feel the need to satisfy the law in order to please God. But this is far from the truth and it is highlighted in Ephesians 2:8-9 where it says -

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

 There is nothing that we can do by our own will or strength that can see us saved. It is only by the grace of God that we are saved. Therefore in order to know the full power of God's love we must engage in grace. To recieve grace we must first give grace.

There are four things that grace does...

1. Grace Captivates
With grace, we can imagine the impossible, for grace has a purpose and allows us to fulfill our destiny. When we are captivated by grace, we have the passion to pay it back.

2. Grace Compel
I mentioned this scripture in my last post, but Im going to show it again as it so powerful. Ephesians 2:8-10 says -

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 We are made alive in Christ. We always have God's love, but are we always in His presence? Grace empowers us to live right. For if we are living for God, then we will always succeed through grace.

3. Grace Convinces
When you think about the love of God and the grace He pours out on each and every on of us, it convinces us to live right! In 2 Corinthians 2:9 Paul says -

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.

His grace is enough!

4. Grace Convicts
When we fully realise the grace we have recieve, it convicts us to live right. Just as the thief who was on the cross next to Jesus, he was convicted. For before we were even brought into this world, Jesus died for us, so that we could live in freedom. He loved us, even when we were sinners. 1 John 4:19 says:

We love because he first loved us.

Simple verse, but it sums up how grace convicts us to live right for God.

The grace of God calls us to live freely. God is for us always.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

(Matthew 11:28-30)