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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: GRACE (08/24/23)
People have written whole books and songs about this simple five letter word, “GRACE”, for they consider it to be the most important concept in the Bible. Yet few of us seem to grasp its richness.

Yes, it’s a relatively small word, yet in the hands of God it is packed full of meaning that has intrigued the heart of many a seeker in each generation for eons, who has sought God’s wonderful cleansing power of grace.

As I think of the magnitude of grace, it causes me to pause and wonder, “Am I being foolish to accept a challenge to describe grace so my readers can truly appreciate its rich meaning… but do so while limiting my words so my answer can fit on only one page.” The dilemma almost caused me to quit before I even started! But as my readers can see, I decided to accept the challenge for I began thinking about the time I came across a verse that in essence told me all good things in life are gifts from God.

Do you know the verse? It’s James 1:17. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights….”

I knew I had read the verse before many times, but this time it grabbed me. I had to go back and read it again. Yes, it did clearly say, “EVERY good gift and EVERY perfect gift is from above.” The thought hit me so hard I had to chew on its message for quite a while.

Most of us already know the standard answer to the question, “What is grace?” It is, “The unmerited favor of God.” But that answer never satisfied me. Of course I understood its meaning; but it seemed to lack tangible substance for me until I understood that God’s grace is linked to His loving goodness.

Now I consider them inseparable, and strongly believe we can’t truly understand God’s grace until we understand the amazing magnitude of His goodness.

ALL GOOD THINGS come from God… because of His wondrous Grace. From the first pages of the Bible that begin with the story of Creation, until the last page of Revelation, we find it interlaced throughout with examples of His loving goodness, mercy and grace being poured out on mankind in one form or another.

Grace is an invaluable gift from God, who is giving us something not earned, from an enormous heart of love… and He amazingly does so every day of our lives, but we don’t even know it.

This finally hit home for me when I began thinking about what life and the world would be like if there was no loving God watching over us like He does, and so no goodness either “coming from above,” like the book of James tell us. Think about what it would be like if God and His goodness were suddenly gone. There would be no loving grace either. NONE.

Do you have the picture of the resulting unbelievable evil, misery and horrors we would be forced to live in? We can know this for the Bible warns us how, “the heart of man is deceitfully wicked.” Without the grace of God and His goodness there would be nothing holding evil violence and wickedness in check.

But thankfully that is not the case! We are blessed beyond measure to have both God and His marvelous gift of grace still with us.

Do you see it? This example not only paints a dark picture of what life would be like without God, it also gives us a beautiful picture and better understanding of God’s incredible grace too!

We have much to be thankful for, don’t we. “For the LORD is good; His mercy (and grace) endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”

It’s true. There is no doubt. We are a people who are unbelievably blessed with His amazing goodness of grace.
__________

Reference: “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Psalm 145:9
For those who would like to know, the closing verse is Psalm 100:5
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Philippa Geaney
09/01/23
My thoughts about trying to capture even a little of the meaning of grace are as yours.
I did capture the wonder expressed by yourself though. Loved it.
Nicely laid out.
Perhaps the focus of ‘controversy’ the Challenge put forward this term did not ring out a whole lot in your wonderful discourse but then again I’m no judge ?.
Avigail David
09/04/23
My thoughts exactly! Amen! Amen!

You have fully expressed the character of our kind Creator, His goodness to all His creation especially to us as our gracious and compassionate Father.