Power of Grace

GodReflection: Power Words

I grew up without understanding grace.

Sure, my parents and teachers gave me more grace than I deserved. I just didn’t know God was familiar with the concept.

I quickly discovered after becoming a baptized teenager that baptismal waters didn’t keep me from being human. I did the best I could for a year or so until my conscience became heavier than I could bear. I then confessed my weakness before the church and I was ready to go again for another year or so. Too bad I didn’t own a confession booth.

Professor K.C. Moser crossed my path at college. He was one of the first in my church to discover grace. His classic book, an autographed copy of The Gist of Romans, still holds a place of honor on my bookshelves. He and Professor Gerald Kendrick set free the power word “grace,” to grow in my life.

Grace is a gift to receive and a present to give.

Grace is a gift.

I think of the gift of my first bicycle. Ok, I admit this is a weak comparison. It was Christmas. My new gift came from Santa Claus. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was no less than a fifteen.

It was a present beyond the capacity of my young age to earn. It could only be my prize possession by being a gift.

Paul, an apostle describes the gift of grace to the church in the city of Ephesus. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Grace is a gift of God that grows as I age.

The truth is I now see grace as a powerful word standing at the top of my list of power words to guide my walk on earth. My understanding of the word increases with each year. The word grows in size and strength. It is a huge word covering my human failings with the blood of Jesus.

I envision a strong intertwined vine of grace. There is a strand that provides the gift of God’s grace to me and a strand that provides my gift of grace to others. I get the receiving part. It covers the Adam in me.

What is harder is my own gifting of grace.

Jesus teaches that I am to be his hands and feet on earth. He taught his twelve apostles, “Freely you have received; freely give.”

To see grace as a force from God to power my life is one thing. To be a dispenser of God’s grace that flows from my life is more difficult to carry out. Grace dispensing is not a natural act on my part. It is easy to write of my desire to awake each morning to shower grace on others. It is not so easy to carry out my God-given assignment.

“Lord Jesus, forgive me when I fail to remember the enormous cost to heaven that makes grace a powerful resource to accompany me through this world. I pray that you will empower me each morning with eyes to see and a heart to serve. Like a gentle rain, falling from the heavens may my life shower grace upon all whom I encounter.May the word Grace that flows from your heart be a guide today as I go forth powered by your Spirit. Let it be so.”

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – At GodReflection, reflecting upon power words.

Gary@GodReflection.org