7475	Forums / Main Forum / What Does Grace Mean To You?	on: May 08, 2007, 03:54:00 PM
Grace turns mans rational moral compass upside down. Man is born to love self effort and have a system in place of getting what he deserves. Man is always measuring his goodness and badness by a standard of checks and balances. Thats why men love to have comfort, savings, and normality in schedules . Men depend upon their own strength, their own systems of morals in order to have a comfortable life. Gods grace is favor, giving, and faithful. God is always gracious. God gives in-spite of mans terrible self satisfaction. The apostle said every thing that he achieve in his ministry was done by the grace of God. Every action that he performed was not attributed to himself, or his own strength by was attributed to the grace of God. In fact he believe that his very self was i am what i am by the grace of God. Paul attribute his very existence to the grace of God. He was an open vessel to be used for Gods purposes and for Gods glory. Paul life was an offering poured out for the church. He endured beatings, hunger, fleeing from dangers, ship wrecks, and more for others so that he would be a trophy of Gods grace. Gods grace was more important to himself that himself was to himself. Grace is shown in giving of our lives for others, giving of our time for others, giving of our monies for others. Gods relationship with us is always graced with speaking to us with favor. Gods love for us is to be a Father to us and we being His favorite sons. He deals with us as his sons because He is gracious. He gives to us His favor by ill merit on our part. Our very lives and our well being are not determined by how we earn His favor, but it is how free we experience His graciousness towards us. It is when we come to a Father who surrounds us with security and love, granting to us His promises, keeping us in His forgiveness, and loving us for His own sake that we are going to open ourselves up to love others with unfeigned love. When we are made to feel that kind of assurance then we are being changed from one glory to another. He gives us everything and then rewards us for giving it away.