Grace and Mercy

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Grace is the unmerited favour of God. It is receiving something from the Lord that we do not deserve. Mercy on the other hand is not getting what we deserve.

Think about a rich man who goes to a prison cell, finds an inmate who has been detained for years and the sentence for that man is to die by execution. This rich man instead goes to the courts and proposes to take on the punishment that the inmate deserves by dying in his place. On top of dying in his place, he leaves all the riches he had accumulated in his entire life to this inmate who is so poor to make it in life since he lost all ever since he entered the prison cell. 

How can we demonstrate grace and mercy in that instance? Mercy is when the inmate doesn't get what he deserves, death. Grace is when he gets what he doesn't deserve, the riches. 

Jesus not only had mercy for mankind by dying in our place but He gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness through His Grace, hallelujah! We didn't meet all the righteous requirements of the law hence the punishment was death but God had mercy and grace. "Oh grace beautiful grace, grace wonderful grace, at the cross you called it finished...." says the lyrics of one song. 

When I got a revelation of the grace of God way back in 2013, I got on fire immediately for the Lord to date. I can't stop preaching, serving, inviting me to church to get what I got. My life was transformed since then. My priorities shifted to the one who showed me Grace. My outlook to life changed. Do not wonder why I do the things I do, it's because am a child of grace.

You need to know something else, if you didn't merit God's grace, it means you can't sin your wat out God's grace. An attempt to add to what God has done or try to keep it based on your goodness voids the entire thing. 

It's time Christians live life to the full, serving the Lord without any sense of guilt and condemnation knowing that God's grace is abundant towards them in every situation. Have you ever been living on the edge before trying in your means to be holy, have the correct speech, behave cordially, yet you fail everytime you intend to? I have been there. I used to be this religious Sunday no miss Christian, putting on a show and my cloak of holiness every Sunday yet through the week am in my own world. To me God was real to me on Sunday. I listened to the "holy" music, tuned on my "holy" TV stations that day. The mood would die out on Monday evening and then came the youthful lusts which kept themselves in check until my batteries of self righteousness run out. Off I got into watching what I didn't want and doing what I didn't want in the secret. The devil likes secrecy. On the outside I looked holy to others. But I was dying in the secret. 

When that revelation of God's grace hit me, I stopped making count of how many times I prayed or read the word but just know I couldn't but do these things now as a lifestyle because it was God at work.

I don't know at what level you're at in getting this revelation, I pray you get it by the writing of this piece.a Grace will change you. You will never try to be righteous anymore after getting this revelation, you will definitely and not by effort, you won't try to give, you will give, you won't try to pray or spend time with God, you will definitely do. No one will force you to serve, you will definitely find a reason to serve because of the revelation of God's grace.

EK