GOOD GRAICOUS

And He said to me. “My grace

is sufficient for you, for My strength

is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore most gladly I will rather

boast in my infirmities, that the

power of Christ may rest upon me.

II Corinthians 12:9

For many years in my Bible reading, I wondered in Paul's writings that usually after the first two or three verses of each of his books, he used the phrase “Grace and peace be with you...” He was so consistent in that wonderful greeting to those he loved and with whom he shared his heart. I often wondered why he didn't say “peace and grace.” I eventually caught on to the fact that without the grace of God, there can be no real peace.

I don't know about you, but I used to hear the above title two-word phrase said by adults when I was but a very young girl. I don't know how often someone said to me, “Good gracious Glendarae....” It took me some years to get the words grace and gracious connected. Let me quickly say that any human graciousness can never be compared to the grace God showers into our lives consistently.

Gracious people I have known are really nice people. They are kind and very accommodating in being of help and encouragement to people they know and often with folks they don't know well. The problem for we human beings is that we aren't always nice. When we are troubled, irritated with someone or even going through a time of illness, our graciousness can be on the limited side. Our graciousness can be tempered by moods or circumstances.

 hear a lot, though, about God's grace. We know for a fact that Scripture tell us that by grace we are saved. That gives us our first real introduction to grace. Any grace God extends to us is totally undeserved. We don't deserve God's blink of His eye toward any of us but that is who God is. His Son paid the highest of price for us thanks to the grace of His Father.

We also have an everyday, every hour grace that God extends into our lives that we again don't deserve. God will never withdraw it or lessen it. In fact, Paul was told of God's grace and it's sufficiency in his life no matter the circumstances. He was assured of God's ongoing power, a grace sufficient for every circumstance.

That was great for Paul, but guess what....it's sufficient for us as well no matter what our days look like. Because of God's grace in our lives, we are to extend that graciousness into the lives of others. There are folks who don't deserve our favor but we extend it anyway just as our Father pours His undeserved grace into our lives.

Father God, without Your grace, we would be nothing, floundering in life with no purpose. Thank You for not giving up on us even though we don't deserve a moment of Your graciousness. We are grateful because of Jesus love....Amen