Are You Living a Life Worthy of God's Grace?

Soon it will be Christmas when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. In the midst of family, friends, gifts, food, drink and all the other trappings of the celebrations, we lose the Grace that is the true meaning of the event of Christ’s birth. We try to prove to ourselves that all the time and effort we put into Christmas is proof that we love God and honor Christ. Instead in all the fuss and hurry we lose the very meaning of what God’s Grace is.

The origin of the word “Grace” comes from the Greek word that means cheer, and leads to other derivations of being cheerful, graciousness and gratifying. In the Old Testament the word used for “grace” is “chen,” and in the New Testament the word used is “charis”. The meaning of these words reflect kindness, favor, beauty, gracious, pleasant and well-favored. Certainly, all of these meanings can be applied to God and also to the gift from God to us with the birth of Jesus Christ. So why do we change the meaning of the Grace of God in Christ to the spectacle of Christmas that we celebrate? Is our understanding of Grace influenced by our sinfulness and selfishness?

It is from God’s Love that comes both Grace and Mercy and all three are different attributes of God. Mercy can be illustrated by many stories in the bible where God shows mercy to His people. From His love for us God extends His Mercy and withholds or lessens the punishment we justly deserve. Instead, we receive a blessing from Him. Grace is harder for us to comprehend as we try to take credit for God’s Grace by claiming that our effort to love God somehow caused God to give us His Grace. Have you ever said about someone, “But for God’s Grace there goes me.”? (1 Co 15:10). If you are saying that to make a comparison of your situation to another person’s situation, and you mean that you are under His Grace but the other person may not be, then you are in serious spiritual trouble (Ac 15:11). It will be better for you if you understand what the other person’s situation is and respond to it with your love and help if they need it.

If you are following the example of Christ, you will be cheerful, kind, gracious, pleasant to others and THEN you will be well-favored by others and you can KNOW that you have God’s Grace (Ti 3:5, 2 Co 9:12-15). Our standing before God is a matter of our faith and not of our own doing (Ro 5:1-2, Ep 2:8-9). Whatever gifts that God has blessed us with must be used to serve others (1 Pe 4:10).

Christmas is a great time to remember that God’s Love, Mercy and Grace come as a result of our Faith. From our Faith we are moved to acts of love and kindness to all others. From our love of God our unselfish actions please God and that results in us receiving His Grace.

The Disciple Group wants you to join us to refresh our spirits and enlighten us with your unique perspective. Ask Pastor Willis if you feel moved to join us and he will put you in contact with us.