Aw! The good, unmerited, and amazing grace of God. We know it well! BUT\u2026.what about OUR grace? I started thinking about Paul the Apostle\u2019s words:
\u201cLet your conversation be always FULL OF GRACE, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d Colossians 4:6<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our words \u2013 full of grace? We hear someone say in reply to someone else in sarcasm \u201cYou are just full of it!\u201d But, rather than sarcasm, it is a compliment when we hear them say, \u201cYou are full of it!\u201d And they mean \u201cfull of grace\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not partial grace. Not halfway grace. All the way grace. It isn\u2019t easy \u2013 especially when one of the precious people we love gets on our last nerve. Sometimes it isn\u2019t easy to speak with grace, but Paul\u2019s words to the Colossians remind us that our words matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And look at how Jesus models grace and truth in John 1:14: \u201cThe Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, Who came from the Father, FULL of grace and truth.\u201d Every time in the New Testament where we see grace and truth together, it is always connected to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sincerely want to be like Jesus, His little sister, who is filled with grace-filled words \u2013 words of healing and helpful words. Because whether we realize it or not, believers and unbelievers alike are listening intently to the words we speak. They\u2019re reading the words we type. And our words speak to the kind of relationship we have with Jesus and the kind of effect He has on our hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus doesn\u2019t offer us partial grace or halfway grace. Jesus gave, and continues to give, all-the-way grace. Grace that took Him all the way to the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The divine grace we receive from Christ should fuel our \u201cgracious\u201d words in our conversations. Because we are people who desperately need grace, we should be people who lavishly give grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if grace weren\u2019t enough in our speech, Paul also tells us our words should be \u201cseasoned with salt\u201d, meaning godly wisdom. He wanted our words to attract people to Christ, not repel them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know who puts grace to the test in your life, dear friends, but I do know the Holy Spirit is willing to help us choose grace-filled words. But we must think before we speak. Remember learning that in elementary school? We must pause long enough for Holy Spirit to replace the gnarly thoughts that may pop into our brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can go ahead and pre-decide that today, because of the lavish grace of Jesus, we can choose the way of grace. With His help, we can speak with honor even when we are being dishonored. We can speak with peace even during chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The writer of \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d, John Newton, encountered God\u2019s grace. He immediately committed His life to extending that same grace to the slaves he had taken advantage of — and, since we have encountered God\u2019s grace, shouldn\u2019t we pay that same grace forward every opportunity we get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound \u2013 for you and me and those we love!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aw! The good, unmerited, and amazing grace of God. We know it well! BUT\u2026.what about OUR grace? I started thinking about Paul the Apostle\u2019s words:\u201cLet your conversation be always FULL OF GRACE, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d Colossians 4:6 Our words \u2013 full of grace? We hear someone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18237,"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":[27071,1],"tags":[333,1210,1769,2572,27060,229,16045,323,27066,40,3580,27059,6375,27070],"class_list":["post-18230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seasoned-with-salt","category-uncategorized","tag-amazing-grace","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-colossians-46","tag-full-of-grace","tag-gods-grace","tag-gods-amazing-grace","tag-grace","tag-gracious-words","tag-inspiration","tag-john-newton","tag-our-grace","tag-seasoned-with-salt","tag-unmerited-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18230","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=18230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18238,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18230\/revisions\/18238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}