"Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart - poisoned as it is with pride and pain - and replacing it with his own." ~Max Lucado
Because of God's grace to us, we are to be an open vessel bothreceiving God's unending grace - not so that we can hoard it or hold onto it - but instead pouring it out on others just as He does for us.
John Ortberg writes, "How do you recognize these grace-providers? Grace-providers notice things about you; they pay attention to your heart and life. Grace -providers speak truthfully to you - both easy words and hard ones. Grace-providers are not people who only say what you want to hear, but they speak the truth in love.
Grace-providers simply never cease to love you. They see beneath the surface; they see the darkness as well as the goodness in your heart. But when they see the darkness they do not pull away. They are not repulsed. They move toward you. You may be a rag doll, but you are God's rag doll, and grace-providers never let you forget it."
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. ~Ephesians 2:8-9
Lord Jesus, Help us to receive your gift of grace and pass it on to the people you put around us.
Growing in Grace Together...