God's grace in our lives

Grace (religion), unearned favor, freely bestowed by God on individuals who are thereby redeemed and sanctified. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2005.For we who are not Microsoft Encarta scholars this means, a free gift given by God to those who are saved. He has given this to all of us who have claimed him as our personal savior. The greatest example of this is when he sent his perfect son to an imperfect earth to die for us. None of us deserved this grace, we really should be serving an eternity of hell right now. Think about it. Right now you and I deserve to be living in the fires of hell, enduring endless pain, but instead he has given us great gifts; homes and friends and family… none of these are our rights, or anything we have earned. These are purely gifts which God has given us for his glory. That last part is the part that is forgotten most easily. Yes, God is a wonderful savior who has blessed us much more than any of us deserve, but he didn’t just give them to us so that we can be really cool and show them off with our friends. I Cor.4: 7 says, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” Why do we boast in the gifts that God has given to us as if we earned them? He is gracious to us in so many ways everyday! God ministers grace in three specific areas, His word, prayer, and fellowship. First of all in His word He gives us specific examples to follow, and find comfort in during our tough times. You may be struggling with something here at school, or maybe things at home aren’t right. God has something specific that he put in the Bible to help you through this time. Secondly, prayer is a huge minister of Grace. Both for yourself and others. God has allowed us to communicate with him in a special way that only we as Christians have. He hears everything that is said by every human during a day, but he allows us to actually consciously talk to him and bring our burdens and requests to him. You have to take advantage of this!!! He is THE GOD and yet he still allows you and I to talk to him! This is a great gift because he made you and he knows how everything inside of you works. He lived the life and endured more than we can even imagine. Talk to Him! The last ministry of Grace is fellowship. John Kappel, a freshman at Bob Jones University, once told me that the only reason he joined a basketball team last year was for the fellowship. What does this mean? Why would you do something you don’t like for this weird thing called fellowship? Fellowship is the communication between believers concerning God in our lives. Sometimes we get scared of “fellowship” because it means we need to be spiritual and can’t have a good time. This is exactly the opposite of what it is! Fellowship is when we can encourage each other by telling what God has done for us. If Bill Gates walked up to you and gave you $1,000,000 would you just take it and walk back to you friends without mentioning it? Of course not!!! You would make sure the entire University knew what happened. This is exactly what we should be doing with the great works of Christ in our lives. You and your friends shouldn’t be afraid of fellowship, rather, you should cling to it and miss it when you are not around good friends. God is immensely gracious to us, and we need to thank him daily for his great grace and love. Without him, we would have no hope, but he has brought tremendous joy to us in the form of his son. Thank him today!