Amazing Grace...

God has been teaching me so much about grace lately. Maybe he's always been trying to teach it... I've just recently been deciding to listen! I think it's a word we hear and we just take it so flippantly... we don't let it transform our lives the way we should. To be granted grace... is one of the most precious things we can be given. Not only do we as Christians receive it, we're supposed to live like our life is different because of it.

God has extended me so much grace in recent times. I have felt his presence so clearly in my life and been amazed by that transforming power of grace. It's not just about receiving it... it's about living a life that's been changed by grace. The online dictionary gives one definition of grace as being 'the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.' The freely given... you see grace didn't cost us anything and unmerited basically means we don't deserve it. God did all the work. It's our job to accept it and live like it makes a difference in our world.

I love the song 'Grace Flows Down'. It's one of my very favorites. In the verse it says 'Amazing Love, now flowing down. From hands and feet, that were nailed to the tree... as grace flows down and covers me'. I love the picture of grace flowing down from the nail scarred hands of our Savior and Lord. Not only does the song say it 'flows down', but it covers. We can pray that not only for ourselves... but for others as well. Pray that God's grace will pour over them and keep them protected and they will be filled to overflowing with his love and favor. I am praying that for someone right now. That they will feel God's grace pour out from Calvary and cover them. That they will know his power is made perfect in their weakness and they can live a life in victory. If I don't believe grace has changed my life, how can I pray for this person to live a life changed by grace? I want to show him that a life of victory in grace isn't about anything that I have done... it's all about what Christ has done because on my own... I am nothing. A great friend once told me... 'What we cover, God uncovers. What we uncover, God covers'... that's grace.