Grace: February 2, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR THURSDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2012

GRACE

DEFINITION:

Ease and elegance of manner or movement; kindness; favor; good will; unmerited divine favor.

SCRIPTURE:

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:8.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12: 9

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:7

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8 that by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves but it is the gift of God. Simply stated grace is God’s unmerited favor. We do not deserve God’s favor nor can we earn it. It is a gift from God to us that He offers us because of His goodness. It is because of God’s grace that He gave His only Son to die on the cross so that we would not perish in our sin but have eternal life.

Yes, our salvation is a free gift but we should not become complacent in our faith. In II Peter 3:14-18 we are told that as believers we need to be growing in our faith. In verse 14 we are to be doing what is right. In verse 15-16 we are to be confident in the truth of God’s Word. In verse 17 we are to be on our guard against false teaching and finally in verse 18 we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ. If we do these things God will be able to use us to make known His wonderful gift of grace to others.

The Hebrew word for grace is CHANAN. It is used in Genesis 6:8 (above). In this passage of the scripture concerning Noah we are told that Noah found grace, the goodness of God, in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace because he was a righteous man who walked with God. By God’s grace Noah and his family were saved from the flood.

In the verse above from II Corinthians the apostle Paul reminds us that the grace that God gives us is sufficient to meet all of our needs. What a wonderful promise.

In John 1:17 we are told from where grace comes. It reads: “For the law was given to us through Moses, but grace and truth came to us through Jesus Christ.” Before Jesus came to this earth one lived under the law. The law could not save. It only demonstrated our need to be saved. When Jesus came everything changed because of the cross that Jesus died on and now we live under grace --- the goodness of God.

In the verse above from Ephesians we are told that grace is given to each one of us that believe in Jesus according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Remember we are saved by putting our faith in Jesus and by the grace (goodness) of God. Then after we have found the Lord we are given individual gifts to use to spread to the world we live in, the good news of the gospel message of God’s grace.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in I John 1:3.

That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

PRAYER;

I thank You today for Your goodness to me. Every day I praise Your name for the wonderful gift of salvation that is mine because of Your grace. Help me today to lead my family as together we reach out to the world we live in to proclaim the good news of Your goodness to us.