First let\u2019s talk about God\u2019s good grace — His unmerited favor on us. It was God\u2019s \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d how sweet the sound that saved ME and saved the day FOR ME way more times than I deserve. And, close to home, was God\u2019s grace to my beloved nephew many times over in his life, but most significant was an urgent triple bypass heart surgery he had to have on Thursday. He didn\u2019t have a heart doctor, but God knew the best for this emergency surgery \u2013 the Professor of Surgery at Oklahoma University’s Medical Center. I spoke with my nephew, heard his words to me: \u201cI love you so much!\u201d the day after his surgery. It made me know God\u2019s grace again.
God\u2019s grace. Today, my prayer is that we\u2019ll see this word again for the first time. I think grace is most fully understood through our own experiences and those of others, like my nephew. God\u2019s abundant grace. But, this blog today is to persuade us all to have unmerited favor and grace toward others. In other words\u2026.the grace given to us by God \u2013 to pay it forward. When I think of someone who is graceful, I think of a ballerina who moves in fluid, smooth lines. I think of someone who seems to float more than walk. That person is not me. Not at all! And that\u2019s not the \u201cgrace\u201d I\u2019m speaking of today. I\u2019m talking about grace-filled lives. Grace-filled families. A grace-filled me! A grace-filled person is one who is so full of God\u2019s love that they stop before they react to THAT person\u2019s comments or actions and before they assess the situation to see if that person or situation is one that needs grace more than reproof.
I want to be that grace-filled person. (Honestly, I wouldn\u2019t mind being more graceful either. I have been known to plant-face, stumble over a rock, get my heel stuck in a return air vent going down the aisle at church, burn myself when I tried to iron my shirt \u2013 with it on, etc. etc. But, I digress.) I know I can\u2019t do life on my own. I need more of God\u2019s good grace. Though I have stumbled many times with this physical body, I have stumbled in my grace toward others. Thank God \u2013 He is filled with grace and mercy. I serve a God who sees the inside of me and who stills loves me in spite of it all. In fact, He loves me so much that He sent His Son to die for me. Talk about grace!
I\u2019ve heard those grace messages and I\u2019ve even memorized many of those grace scriptures. But what has taught me the most? My own story and the stories of others who have fully experienced grace. Grace \u2013 given to us when we deserved a failing grade; grace that opened up career doors for us; the grace of blessing us with our spouse and children. It was grace that we were spared from that “almost” auto accident or that horrific storm.
We can never sink so far that God\u2019s grace will not reach us. At the same time, grace does not leave us there. It causes us to demonstrate that grace to others in words and actions. It\u2019s my prayer for you and I not to miss grace in our lives so much so that no matter what has been done to us, that we will choose grace for others. Making daily decisions of pouring out grace to others as grace has been poured out to us. We once were lost, but now we\u2019re found. We were blind, but now we see! Our grace-filled Lord, please help us to be as free with grace to others \u2013 as you have been to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First let\u2019s talk about God\u2019s good grace — His unmerited favor on us. It was God\u2019s \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d how sweet the sound that saved ME and saved the day FOR ME way more times than I deserve. And, close to home, was God\u2019s grace to my beloved nephew many times over in his life, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12483,18434],"tags":[333,8275,1210,1769,229,323,1935,21842,21841,18952,17358,40,15065,21840,854],"class_list":["post-14984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","category-grace","tag-amazing-grace","tag-ballerina","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-gods-grace","tag-grace","tag-grace-and-mercy","tag-grace-filled-families","tag-grace-filled-lives","tag-grace-scriptures","tag-how-sweet-the-sound","tag-inspiration","tag-my-grace","tag-sufficient","tag-unmerited-favor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14986,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions\/14986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}