When I was a boy growing up in the small town of Williamston, one of the things that I was taught early in life was the value of working hard, making your way and earning a living.  My family was and still is made up of men and women who believe in working hard, giving 110% and going the extra mile.  My Dad and Mom taught and practiced that you always give more than what was paid for.  When I was a Boy Scout, we worked hard to complete certain tasks, so we could earn merit badges which we could then display to show everyone how much our hard-work had accomplished.

In recent years, God has been teaching and showing me that while this is a very good thing, it can actually get in the way and corrupt our relationship with Him.  What I mean is this, while a good work ethic is valuable in all of our lives.  And while it is very important for each person to do their part in earning his or her way in the daily living of life.  It is also very important that we realize and understand that there are some things we can’t do.

And these things that we can’t do have been done for us by a loving Father God, Who has always had our best interest and His glory in mind.  Somewhere, somehow as I grew up, I began to think that my hard work and due diligence had earned me something in the spiritual realm.  After all, I had always heard that God helps those who help themselves.  After a number of years of consistent hard work, I began to think that I deserved something more in the spiritual realm.  That is, until God decided to take me to school.

One of the first things that God started to teach me about was His Grace.  I thought I understood it.  I had heard about since I was a little boy in Ms. Dora’s Sunday School Class.  We sang about it in some shape or form every Sunday for years.  I heard sermons, listened to lessons and even read about it in my very own Bible.  I knew about Grace, especially God’s grace – at least I thought I knew.

But what God is teaching me is this:  There is so much that I do not know and a lot of what I thought I knew was all wrong.  I was confusing the teaching of my upbringing in the physical world with some of what I was learning about life in the spiritual world and often the two are totally different – almost opposites.

Let’s look at the example of grace – what is it exactly?  Here’s the best working definition I have some up with thus far:  Grace is unmerited, undeserved and unearned favor, pardon, rescue and redemption which produce restoration which allows the relationship.  I know that’s a mouthful.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says:  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, so that no one can boast.”

Grace then is God’s gift to you and me which gives us what we don’t deserve and have not earned, all with the ultimate purpose of our being able to live in relationship with the One Who created us, sustains us and has an amazing plan for our lives.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve!  Everyday at Grace Place, we give stuff away.  It is stuff that the people have not earned and it is stuff that they do not deserve, but they get it, because their getting it is a powerful example and witness of how God desires to give to all of His children.

“Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal.  It is a way to live.  The law tells me how crooked I am.  Grace comes along and straightens me out.”  -Dwight L. Moody  Grace is the gift of God, a gift is not earned or deserved, it is given and received.  Giving is God’s part and receiving is our part.  Once we receive this gift of grace then along with it comes a responsibility to grow in it and share it with others.

Take some time today to think about just how much God must love you to give you what you don’t deserve, so that you can live the most amazing and powerful life ever.  Don’t waste this sweet gift, grow it for God’s glory by sharing it everywhere and with everyone you can – trust me, you will be glad you did!

I love to smile and I love to see other people smile.  Some days it is hard to turn the corners of our mouth upward, so I thought maybe my new favorite song and video might help.  Hope you enjoy Kirk Franklin & Steve Harvey and the movie you will be trying to think of as you are watching is called “Coming to America.”

I love the Scriptures and I consider myself very blessed to be able to read them and have the Spirit give me some understanding of how they apply to my life and everyday living.

Consider just a few verses from Ephesians 1 and let them encourage, motivate and challenge you to live a life for God’s glory!

“3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” 

God, Who is love, loves us so much that He gave us His most precious gift – the gift of His one and only Son.  And with the gift of Jesus, God has blessed us not just with a handful, but with every spiritual blessing.  Be sure and notice that these are in the heavenly places in Christ.  God chose you before you were born.  In fact, God chose you before the foundations of this world that you live in.  He chose you to be holy and blameless before Him and then sent His Son to make it all possible!

In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Again, don’t miss out of the reality that God is love and in His love, which is what and who He is, He predestined, planned in advance, willed that we would be His children, not because we deserve or have earned it, but because He is God and it is His will.  It is God’s amazing grace that allows our lives to praise Him and it is this grace that He has given to us freely in Jesus, His beloved Son that enables us to live supernatural and powerful lives.

7  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

Our redemption, our value, our worthiness comes not through what we have done or have not done, but through the shed blood of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ.  We have been forgiven of all our trespasses, sins and failures according to the riches of His grace, which he lavished and poured out freely upon our lives.  This is a mystery of His will that we could not understand without His wisdom and insight.  Again, because we need reminding – this is not something we have earned or deserved, but because of God’s kind intention motivated by the reality that He is love.

“In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

As if all of this was not enough, God also blesses us with an inheritance.  He has given us a purpose greater than we could have ever given ourselves.  He has a will for our lives and helps us to understand that our hope is in Christ and our lives lived in fulfillment are for the purpose of giving Him praise and glory of which only He is worthy!

Live your life in Him and for Him – you will be glad you did!