A 5 Day Devotional focuses on the meaning of grace – how we can give it and how we can receive it.
Capitol CMG Label Group
Day 1
Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 12:9, Matthew 10:5-8, John 3:16
G – Grace is a gift.
WHAT IS GRACE?
2020 was a front-row seat to the revelation of or perhaps the magnifying of a great divide that has been buried, downplayed, ignored, or even worse, hidden in plain sight for far too long. In the last year, we have all witnessed a change in ways unimaginable. The entire world has been warring against a disease that has plagued the four corners of the world, baffled the brightest minds of science and medicine, and changed the way we move individually and collectively in society daily.
This new normal has harshly impacted the lives of people everywhere, placing unmeasurable and unsustainable demands on everyone regardless of race, creed, socio-economic background, or color, having no respect for persons with sickness and death overtaking the young and old alike. With government mandates that limit the movements of citizens and imposed requirements in place i.e. wearing masks in public and social distancing, there has been a diverse outcry from people everywhere.
In response, the world has displayed defiance to the tune of a “freedom song” whose lyrics speak more of an individual’s rights and entitlement than it does to brotherhood, community, or liberty and justice for all with the least concern being shown for those who are suffering the most.
In these unprecedented times, people are hurting and searching for answers. To that, I say GRACE is a great place to start. In delving deeper into the word GRACE I find that it takes on a more defined and targeted meaning for such a time as this.
2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” KJV
GRACE is a gift. It is the:
Gift of
Responsibility
And Accountability shown
With Compassion
And Empathy
In pulling the word apart I came to understand that GRACE is where God’s strength and sufficiency co-exist intentionally and perfectly with OUR WEAKNESS. But what does that mean exactly and how does it apply to your life today and every day?
GRACE is indeed a gift and if we freely receive it from God and others, we should freely give it to others as an intentional and targeted part of walking out our lives daily. (Cross Reference Matthew 10:5-8)
So, when in search of GRACE for ourselves (from God or people) we should be reminded what grace truly is. We should be willing to extend it to others understanding that if any one of these actions (Giving/gifting, responsibility, accountability, compassion, or empathy) can be eliminated in an extension of grace from ourselves to others is in fact NOT GRACE at all.
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He GAVE (offered/gifted) His only begotten son. That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
Day 2
Scriptures: Luke 12:48, Romans 3:23-24, Matthew 7:12, Jeremiah 31:3, Proverbs 15:1
R. Grace is a responsibility.
Luke 12:48 KJV: “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
Luke 12:48 Amplified Version: “But the one who did not know it and did things worthy of a beating will receive only a few [lashes]. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
GRACE is a responsibility – one that believers should both carry and expect other believers to hold themselves to. The responsibility of GRACE is to remember that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God but even in our shortcomings, we are justified freely because of GRACE and redemption through Jesus Christ.
(Romans 3:23-24)
How many times has someone spoken to you in a manner that seems short, dismissive, or even blatantly disrespectful? How many times did you allow the actions of someone else to take you out of character? This is where practicing the RESPONSIBILITY of Grace is necessary for most of our lives. I can say I have failed in this area many times in my past. Being aware of it has made me more attentive to practicing the responsibility of Grace and doing unto others as I’d have them do unto me (Matthew 7:12).
Then I started asking the question how much different would the world be if we ALL truly treated others the way we want to be treated? This self-evaluation set me on a course to do better practicing the responsibility of GRACE.
In each of our lives, we can find ourselves overwhelmed with daily tasks and obligations. Going to work, school, caring for loved ones, running businesses, paying bills, and the many other things that require our attention.
We do all of this many times while putting on “the face” so people aren’t aware of the stress of our lives or the strenuous circumstances that any of us could possibly be dealing with at home. Think about that for a moment. YOU know what you live with from day to day and the feeling of not having enough hours in the day to deal with it all can leave you drained.
I started thinking of the many times I had to be somewhere, singing, ministering, performing, or just running an errand knowing that inside I was hurting, grieved, or upset and couldn’t say anything about it.
People thought I was just an angry person when the truth was I was hurting and my soul was hemorrhaging. I was smiling outside and crying… whilst dying on the inside. Then I thought how many times was the look on my face, my actions, or tone of voice offensive to someone else who had no way of knowing how I was feeling or what I was going through? They couldn’t know.
As believers, God gives us the opportunity every day not only to receive His Grace but to daily extend Grace and turn situations like this into a God moment for someone who may really need it. To whom much is given much is required. I started by telling myself when I’m offended by someone to be intentional, take a beat and then respond rather than react. Don’t react, respond.
Just that one moment is enough time to choose how many of us respond to offense. Until I was able to look at others and say I don’t know what kind of day he/she is having. I don’t know what he/she is living with if they are sick, just received bad news, or even going home to a difficult or abusive situation. I didn’t fully understand the responsibility I have to offer GRACE because I have been the recipient of God’s grace more times than I can count.
It changed me to think about it that way. It made me more understanding about the responsibility of GRACE and how I have the authority to change a moment like that when it’s presented to me and remember the many times I was in that situation and feeling very alone, very broken, very hopeless, and very misunderstood by people who could only see the exterior of my life.
Jeremiah 31:3
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Freely He gave us GRACE. Freely He continues to give us GRACE. Self -Check moment. Are you doing the same for others or are you being selfish with GRACE when others need and should receive it? We say we want to be more like Jesus. We sing songs about it but do we really? What are we doing intentionally to be more like Jesus?
God offers us grace not because we deserve it. It’s unmerited yet God still gives it. Shouldn’t we do the same?
We have a responsibility to at the very least give GRACE not if someone messes up or offends us but especially when they mess up.
The RESPONSIBILITY of Grace lies on each of us. If you find this is an area you need to pay more attention to in your walk. I challenge you to make a decision to be intentional. Respond instead of reacting.
Extend GRACE. It is our responsibility.
Day 3
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:2-6, John 1:9, Romans 5:20
A. Grace is Accountability.
I Corinthians 10:13 KJV: “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
I Corinthians 10:13 NLT: “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Gift of
Responsibility
And Accountability shown
With Compassion
And Empathy
When I think of Accountability I think of living in a time where “cancel culture” is literally the phrase that won’t go away – even from the mouths of those who call themselves Christians. When I think about “cancel culture” it immediately comes to me that it is ANTI-GRACE. Because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we all need GRACE in life at some point. If cancel-culture is something you believe in or subscribe to it has the possibility of removing GRACE altogether in your own life. This doesn’t take away the necessity of accountability but it is a part of the process of Grace where acknowledgment is made and we are free from condemnation.
The phrase that God will never put more on you than you can bear is the way this scripture is often “misquoted” or misunderstood.
There is nothing you can experience in your life that someone before you hasn’t experienced in some way. When you first understand that you are NOT alone, it removes the deception that the enemy will often bring to your mind that nobody gets you, no one understands you, or that you are in this alone. That is ALL LIES.
James 1 2-6 KJV: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
Trials and temptations are a part of life, but they are an expected part of life that can be beaten. You CAN have the victory over things that were once weaknesses or recurring instances of falling in your walk with Christ.
It takes faith, patience, and doing the work necessary to have victory over things that once “controlled” you or things that you’ve fallen weak to in times past. These are also the times when you also need to give grace to yourself. If you are anything like me, I can be very hard on myself. This can be an issue but the simple answer to that is this: if God can forgive you, who are you NOT to forgive yourself?
John 1:9 NIV: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
At the center of GRACE is accountability so when people do things that require justice to be served, answers to be given or acts of retribution must take place GRACE must remain in the equation.
Everyone has a weakness, an area in their life that if they aren’t careful could cause them to fall out of the will of God. The beauty of GRACE is that should you fall, GRACE is the reason you can get back up and move forward.
I believe in being accountable and I believe in holding others accountable as well. That said it’s not an accident that accountability falls right in the middle of GRACE… Specifically, it is positioned between responsibility and compassion.
Romans 5:20 KJV: “Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
God’s GRACE is there to catch us when we fall. It is equally important to understand that God’s GRACE still holds us accountable but also offers protection and restoration at the same time.
Holding yourself or perhaps another individual accountable for what they have said or done is not wrong. In fact, it is one of the many ways that iron sharpens iron – we should hold ourselves and one another accountable. But accountability without grace is judgment, it is cancel-culture at its worst and GRACE cannot co-exist in the same place as cancel culture. They are polar opposites.
GRACE is everything you need and even more of what you didn’t know you needed. GRACE is Accountability.
Day 4
Scriptures: James 2:14-17, Matthew 15:32, Galatians 6:1
C. Grace is Compassion
The word compassion means recognizing the suffering of others and then taking action to help.
Compassion also embodies a tangible expression of love for those who are suffering.
Compassion and faith are similar in that both of them require works to really mean something:
James 2 14-17: “What does it profit, my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Just as faith is an action word and not just a feeling, compassion is very much the same. Compassion without action is nothing more than a heightened emotional moment. It’s merely a mood.
Feeling compassion for a person but doing nothing to help better that person’s life or circumstances make it just a word.
Time and time again Jesus was and is our primary example of what compassion looks like.
Matthew 15:32 Takes us to Jesus in ministry with multitudes of people following him from place to place for days as he taught. Jesus is moved with compassion and tells his disciples he didn’t want to send the people away because he saw their fatigue and hunger and knew that some would fall ill or die if he didn’t act on what he saw.
This very familiar passage of scripture takes us to the miracle Christ performed of the fish and the loaves feeding thousands from the contents of one child’s “lunchbox”.
True compassion requires a call to action. In context with where compassion falls inside of GRACE and how we can be better givers of the Grace we receive.
Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.”
Or in more contemporized terms, there but for the GRACE of GOD go you and I.
Now with a freshly defined and clearer understanding of compassion, we understand better how it is that we are saved by GRACE through Faith and why it is impossible to extend GRACE without real compassion.
GRACE is the
Gift of
Responsibility
And Accountability shown
With Compassion
And Empathy
Day 5
Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Romans 5:8, Isaiah 53:3-6, Ephesians 2:8-9
E. Grace is Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another and to be able to do it from that person’s frame of reference.
Empathy is understanding another person’s life, circumstances, and walking together with them with whatever they are facing.
For some, that alone may make empathy a hard thing to fully comprehend. For others, it may make empathy sound impossible.
Because when you think about it, can a person really know how it feels to walk in someone else’s life, skin or shoes?
Is it at all possible to take on the burden, affliction, or grief of someone if you have never personally experienced or lived what they have experienced or lived through?
Again, we look to Jesus as our shining example.
2 Corinthians 5:18, 21 KJV: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Romans 5:8 ESV: But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Isaiah 53: 3-6 KJV: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Because of Jesus’ amazing capacity to bear the burdens of the entire world – we also can be empathetic to others.
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.”
Keeping this in mind I encourage you to be more aware of the GRACE you give with the understanding that you have been the recipient of Grace and will need to receive it again and again and again throughout your life.
GRACE is the
Gift of
Responsibility
And Accountability shown
With Compassion
And Empathy
Practice GRACE. Go through the workweek and choose one letter a day. It can be in any order but make one of the five components or traits of GRACE your focus for that day and be intentional to find an opportunity to walk, talk and live out that trait all day long.
From the simplest to the most complex thing in your day there is always a way to be more giving, to walk in responsibility, to live with accountability for yourself and others, and with compassion and empathy.
2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”