What is Grace?
Grace: The exercise of love, kindness, compassion, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another.
Grace comes from the Lord and is simply the God-given desire and the power to do God’s will.
Grace is God doing good for us that we do not deserve.
God showed us his merciful grace when he sent his begotten son, his only son, to die on the cross for our sins that we continue to commit everyday. I have received kindness, joy, guidance, and love from his grace. Receiving those things are the blessings God has given to us. Without his grace we wouldn’t be here today. That’s a blessing within itself.
God shows me grace everyday, So who am I to not show it to others?
Some years ago, I had a neighbor who constantly rubbed me the wrong way. we would argue. I would try to avoid them by staying in the house. Our kids had suffered from our behavior towards each other. It felt like a battle everyday. Even on days that we got along I was still uncomfortable and hateful. I was full of anxiety ready to fight if needed. My kids were in the limelight sometimes, and caught my wrath meant for the neighbors. I was simply miserable and thought the only opinion was to move (run away). However, timing was bad and I couldn’t just up and move.
This battle went on for a couple of years until I woke up one day, and decided that this was not how I wanted to live. I was tired of the war, and wanted it to be over.
I prayed about it, begging God to give me peace with the situation. To help me deal since it didn’t seem like we were going to be moving any time soon anyway.
Then I heard a voice say, “If I can forgive you, If I can show you grace, who are you to not show it to others?”
That is when the light went on in my head. I thought to myself, “I am only human, not God.”
Anger can be a great sin because it violates God’s command to love. Anger, in my case, was a seething, bitterness against my neighbor. It’s a dangerous emotion that always threatens to leap out of control, lead to violence, emotional hurt, increase mental stress, and spiritual damage. Anger keeps us from developing a spirit pleasing to God.
Have you ever been proud that you didn’t snap on someone and say the harsh things that were really on your mind? Self-Control is the key. Christ wants us to practice thought-control as well. Jesus said that we will be held accountable even for our attitudes.
And so I did. Following God’s word, I was able to get the strength I needed from him to get over whatever animosity I had towards my neighbor. I showed grace and prayed from them when they still did things that I felt were hurtful and wrong towards me and my family. Over time God changed my heart, and my outlook on the situation. When my neighbor had a death in the family, I stepped up to pray for her, and be the friend that she needed. I did it without hesitation. Our relationship was still rocky, but I still felt the need to be there for her. As time went on, God worked between up. Day by day we were slowly working on building some sort of respectable relationship. God worked through the both of us, changing our hearts and our soul.
Showing her grace, and being supportive even when things weren’t good between us was a wake up call for the both of us. I believe God was working hard between us, and he placed the right situations in our lives to bring us together. He works in mysterious ways that’s for sure.
I changed how I interacted with her. I relied on God to give me the strength to show grace. That was a everyday prayer of mines that was definitely answered. Now, we are good friends. Our kids are best friends. We love each other’s kids like our own. We laugh, we cry, we talk, and we support each other.
God changed both of our hearts through grace and forgiveness. He can change your heart… he can change your life….. only if you let him.
“God reminds us again and again that things between He and us are forever fixed. They are the rendezvous points where God declares to us concretely that the debt has been paid, the ledger put away, and that everything we need, in Christ we already possess. This re-convincing produces humility, because we realize that our needs are fulfilled. We don’t have to worry about ourselves anymore. This in turn frees us to stop looking out for what we think we need and liberates us to love our neighbor by looking out for what they need.” -Tullian Tchividjian
We may feel that our faith in God and our love for Christ and for others is inadequate. But we can be confident that Christ will help our faith and love grow as our relationship with Him deepens.