G.

1 Corinthians 4:7 “For what makes a distinction between you and someone else? And what do you have that grace has not given you? And if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as though there is something special about you?” (TPT)

If we were to represent grace in a mathematical equation, it would be Grace = Mercy + Favour. Mercy does not give you what you deserve. You deserve to be judged but mercy says no. Favour, on the other hand, gives you what you do not deserve. You do not deserve the job, but favour says yes. You do not deserve that spouse, but favour says yes. The primary language of mercy is No. The primary language of favour is Yes. Mercy plus favour combined is grace. When the grace of God is upon you, you experience the mercy of God and the favour of God. When the grace of God is upon you, mercy says No to what you deserve as punishment, and favour says Yes to what you do not deserve as blessings and promotion.

To break down the fundamentals of grace further, we have taken the word Grace and built the acronym G. R. A. C. E. Talking about acrostics, a professor at Yale while giving a speech to His students, used the acrostics Y.A.L.E. He spent thirty minutes on each letter meaning he held the undergraduates down for two hours. By the time the lecture was over, on the way out he asked one of the students if he enjoyed the class. The student said, “I am glad I did not choose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” I hope you get the joke.

The G in the fundamentals of Grace stands for God’s Gift To Me. There are many components to this: it is God’s, it is a gift, and it is to me. Grace cannot be effective if it is not personalized. You have to be able to personalize it and see that it is God’s gift to you, yes you. It is not to everybody, and you are partaking of it. It is fundamentally God’s gift to you. You must see yourself in that light. The grace of God is fundamentally a gift to you. You can never earn it. You can never learn it. You do not deserve it. You cannot buy it. You cannot accrue it.

It is a gift, it is from God, and it is to you. Romans 11:⁶ “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, …otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (NASB). Grace is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other faith or religion. There was a time in my life when even though I was a Christian, I was curious. The way my mind works is I ask questions, for example, why is this the way? So, I took a personal journey and did a bit of study about every other religion and expressions of faith. The summation of every other religion is just one word, “Do”. You have to do this and do that to get this and that. The summary of Christianity and faith in Christ can also be summarized in one word, “Done”. It is finished!

Prayer: Father, thank You for the gift of Your grace to me, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!