Living in God's grace is getting what we do not deserve

When we make the decision to become a Christian by receiving Jesus and decide to live for Him instead of living for ourselves; we receive forgiveness of our sins which is the beginning of God's grace. It truly is a beautiful thing and more than anyone could ever ask for or deserve. However, that is not where God's grace stops. In today's post, I want to talk about a deeper meaning of God's grace.

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Many Christians do not understand that grace is so much more just forgiveness of sins. It is normally preached that the grace of God is forgiveness; and that is where we stop talking about the topic. Forgiveness of sins is only the beginning of God's grace! By only sharing grace to this extent is like donating a car to someone who had never seen one before. You explain all the cool interior features of this car, but you neglect to tell this person that the primary function of the car is for it to be driven. So they go on enjoying the small features inside the car, but they never put it into drive and they continue to walk everywhere like they did before.Grace is God's empowerment on our lives. Through Him, we are empowered to do more than what we would ever be able to do in our own strength. In fact, God's grace, or empowerment, is accessible for us do we do not need to operate in our own strength.  The early church in the book of Acts really understood this. In Acts 6 the writer talks about the followers of Jesus being highly regarded by all the people. Also often throughout Acts; they had to convince people that they themselves were not gods.I am not saying that everyone is going to hold you in high regard, and I'm pretty sure that no one is going to mistake you for a god. However, what I am saying is that God, through His grace; has a higher, more extraordinary way of living in store for each of us. In order to live in it, we must increase our faith and ask Him for His grace in all aspects of our lives. Here are 4 ways to increase God's grace in your life: 1. Ask and you shall receive. - Often we do not have because we do not ask. Matthew 7:7: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."2. Increase your faith. - We must truly trust that God's grace is enough for us to get through anything in our lives. Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."3. Walk in humility. - If you are operating through God's grace, all glory is His, not yours. Without humility, you cannot operate in God's grace. James 4:6: "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”"4. Believe. - Believe that you have received God's free gift of grace that you do not deserve and be thankful and joyful in this. 2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Living in God's grace is getting what we do not deserve, but isn't it a beautiful thing that He has given it to us so freely? Let's begin being the Christians that we are all called to be by living in this empowerment that God has for each of us!