Last week, we finally got to dedicate our house to the Lord after completing all necessary legalities to call it our own. We invited family and friends to join us and celebrate the occasion—two 26-year-olds purchasing a 500-square-metre house all by the grace of God.
After the event, my dad sent me a text telling me how he loves watching me and my wife respond to the grace of God. I never really thought about the thought of responding to the grace of God before that point, but it made all sense to me right after. Many of us Christians walk through life not knowing how to respond to God's grace.
Grace is simply the unmerited favour of God towards us. We don't deserve it, but He gives it anyway. But there is a proper way to respond to grace that will reflect our perspective towards it. A heart that really understands that grace is unmerited favour will respond in four ways.
1. Rely on Grace
Ephesians 2:8 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
Speaking on the saving grace of God, we can never earn this favour of being bought at a price from sin and death, but what we can do is rely on the finished work by faith and not rely on anything else. Our own works cannot save us. Our knowledge, principles or doctrine cannot earn us favour. These are simply means to respond in reliance to the grace of God.
2. Don't Abuse Grace
Sadly, we can sometimes treat grace as an excuse to remain the way we are. But the grace of God is not a licence to abuse God's heart towards us. Romans 6:1-2 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"
While this is something we all work on, we can rely on God's grace to change us from glory to glory.
3. Be Changed By Grace
Titus 2:12 tells us that the grace of God trains us "to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age."
The grace of God is not a crutch that allows us to stay the same and still experience God's blessing. It's an empowering force that drives us to become better than we were yesterday. The grace of God can and will cause us to grow.
4. Give Grace
In John 13:34, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
By the grace we have been given in an overflowing manner, God has a plan for where that overflowing abundance should go: towards others. We love others not because we have to but because we receive so much of God's grace that we want others to experience the same overflowing grace we have experienced.
