3 Steps of Receiving Grace

We have to rehearse grace when we fail. And we must rehearse the grace of God when we succeed because we are doing it all by the grace of God. So, we must practice this thinking, or else we will think that this is deserved favor we're walking in.

Rehearsing grace: God gives me grace when I am doing good or failing. I give others grace when they are doing good or failing.

You could tell this servant didn't have time to rehearse it. Have you ever gone to your child's school program, and you can tell which kid missed every rehearsal? He is all over the place and totally out of step. He didn't go to any rehearsals.

We need to receive grace. You need to rehearse grace.

God's grace is a gift we must give it away. When it comes to grace, we need to be a freeway, not a cul-de-sac. Cul-de-sac grace will get us in trouble every single time. Notice the frustration and the anger of God.

"In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers until he could pay back all he owed. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

Notice, it's not our grace to release. That man was asking for mercy. The grace that he should've given the servant wasn't his grace. And it's not our grace to release. It's God's grace through us. We must choose to say, "I'm not giving them what they deserve. I'm giving them what God gave me."

Love looks like grace. Economically, he was forgiven 10,000 bags of gold. He was empowered economically and should have been able to forgive this smaller debt someone owed him.

God is talking about a grace we can do. Don't get it twisted. We don't get a pass. We can do this, but are we choosing to do it?

Here is the challenge for all of us. Practice double grace. The grace God has given us. Plus, the grace we give to others. Not the grace that we've mustered up on our ability. It's always got to be a double grace. God never asks us to extend anything to anyone out of our resources and our capacity because he knows we're in a deficit. We're depleted and have nothing to give. But he's asking us to do this, "Out of the abundance of grace that I have provided for you, now you give grace." So, it's a double grace.

Double grace is God's gift to us and God's grace through us. Those are the only options we have. That's how grace lives. James 4:6 tells us God gives grace generously. We have received grace generously. We release grace in the same way. We have to walk and live in double grace. If we think about this for more than five seconds, we'll immediately say, "All right, Holy Spirit, I need you because ain't no way I'm going to pull this off." Double grace.

We used to sing a song in my church when I was a child. It's one of my favorite hymns. "Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I prove him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him more." I love that last line. "Oh, for grace..." I interpret it as, "Oh, I need grace so I can trust him more."

We are grace people.

• We receive God's grace.

• We rehearse God's grace.

• We release God's grace.

Mary Southerland is also the Co-founder of Girlfriends in God, a conference and devotion ministry for women. Mary’s books include, Hope in the Midst of Depression, Sandpaper People, Escaping the Stress Trap, Experiencing God’s Power in Your Ministry, 10-Day Trust Adventure, You Make Me So Angry, How to Study the Bible, Fit for Life, Joy for the Journey, and Life Is So Daily. Mary relishes her ministry as a wife, a mother to their two children, Jered and Danna, and Mimi to her six grandchildren – Jaydan, Lelia, Justus, Hudson, Mo, and Nori.