Being Gracious

[Edwin]

Have you ever thought about what being gracious means? I think there are several meanings connected with the word grace. Someone who has poise we consider to be graceful. The Gazelle is graceful in his/her movements. Gracefulness is the opposite of being awkward. So, we are graceful if we move smoothly and do not stumble or fall. A person going down the isle to get married moves with grace, or the person in a graduation procession. I think there is another aspect of being gracious which is showing grace. God has bestowed on us His grace when he gave us what we do not deserve. The definition of grace has been given as unmerrited favor. I have heard this definition criticized because if you say the word favor, you do not have to say unmerrited because favor is not earned, and to use the word unmerrited is redundant. Anyway when we get grace from God we get what we don't deserve. God wants us to give others also what they don't deserve. Show grace to others. If they do wrong, don't try to make them pay for their wrongs. This goes against my grain, because my natural tendency is to want to make people pay for their wrongs. But, we can show others grace as God has shown us grace also. This is kind of like if we don't do for others what we want God to do for us, He may not do it for us. This is related to God's law that if we want God to forgive us, we had better forgive others, because if we do not forgive others God will not forgive us either, and that is kind of scary.

[crisipicada]

We deserve to go to hell but God sent His Son Jesus to pay our sins at the cross, that is mercy.

We do not deserve to go to heaven, because we are sinners, but we become the Sons of God, when we accepted Christ as our Personal Savior and Lord, that is grace.

Being gracious is that we do not deserve something but by the grace, we deserve it. Many people are being gracious. Like showing kindness and respect despite of not worthy to receive it. Thank you for people who are gracious and it is my prayer to be gracious also because God has been gracious to me. I always pray for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to fill me everyday.

[Edwin]

That is really wonderful, Crisi! As you have the fruit of the Holy Spirit you will be gracious, or show grace. Yes, we all deserve to die in hell, but God gave His Son Jesus, and Jesus died so that we can live, and yes that is a demonstration of the mercy of God. God has shown us grace, and we are to show grace to others, and then that demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Maybe that other person doesn't deserve our kindness, but we show kindness anyway.