Gracious: November 30, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30, 2012.

GRACIOUS

DEFINITION:

Merciful; compassionate; kindly; courteous.

SCRIPTURE:

For you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.  1 Peter 2:3 RSV Translation.

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. Ecclesiastes 10:12.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Recently we were talking to some friends concerning what we feel is a lack of civility in our world. It is even harder to find graciousness. Do you know many people today that are consistently gracious? To be gracious in the evil world that we live in is most difficult. People and situations can irritate and upset us but this is no reason to be uncivil and ungracious. Being gracious is much more than just being civil.

God has given us the standard of His graciousness. Let us look at a few scriptures. In Exodus 34:6 God was speaking to Moses preparing Moses to lead the Children of Israel to honor and serve Him (God) by obeying His commandments. God gave Moses the difficult assignment to teach the Children of Israel to worship and honor Him with obedience and to show love and graciousness to each other. When Moses asked to see the Glory of God, the scripture says that the Lord passed before him and proclaimed “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” Graciousness is one of the attributes of God.

The same attribute of graciousness is in Jesus. In Luke 4:22 we read about when Jesus returned to Nazareth, the place where He grew up as a carpenter’s son. They all knew Jesus as a boy and did not know Him as their Messiah.  Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-2 to them. He told them His coming was to fulfill this scripture but that He was being rejected by many in the very place that He grew up. After Jesus had spoken: “all that bore witness to Him marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Although they did not recognize Him as their Messiah, they recognized that he was gracious.

Despite being rejected, misunderstood or even persecuted Jesus set a standard for us as believers to be gracious in spite of how we are treated. As parents we need to begin with ourselves and learn to be gracious to all we meet, whether it is family or complete strangers. Probably the most difficult task that we have is teaching our children to be gracious. This is difficult because they will have to deal with peers who are not gracious. When a young child is mistreated by another child they are quick to retaliate.

 In Ephesians 4:32 Paul tells us how to be gracious: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us.” In Ephesians 5:1-2 Paul tells us to be imitators of God and live a life of love just as Christ loved us.

One of our daughters came home from junior high school one day, totally upset. Someone had taken her brand new blazer jacket out of her gym locker during gym class. Although she was well aware that most all of her peers in the school were more well-to-do than our family, we tried to comfort her with the thought that perhaps the girl needed it more than she did. In addition, we told her to think of the guilt the girl would feel whenever she would wear the blazer. Regardless of our words of consolation, she wasn’t feeling very gracious toward the unknown thief.

No, it is not easy to always be gracious even when we know we should be. We must ask the Lord to enable us to do what we find difficult to do.

LEARNING:

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

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

PRAYER:

Help me to respond to the examples You have given me in Your Word to be gracious to everyone I meet today despite how they may treat me. Keep me mindful that others are watching me and I must make sure my attitude and my actions do not bring dishonor to You.