The Lord communicates to us in a language we can understand and He is so personal! I learn conceptually, and the Lord has faithfully woven concepts of grace into every single area of my life. My year in one word would be “Grace”.  As we look into a new year, I want to pause and testify to the things I have learned about grace and thank Him that I will carry these into next year.

1. Its true that Grace isn’t something we can earn, but it is something we have to be in the right position and frame of mind to receive.
2.  Grace is the promise of humility. Humility comes first.
3.  Grace and peace are twins that are rarely separate.
4.  A lack of peace, is a warning sign that grace is not being relied upon.
5.  If there is a lack of grace and subsequently peace in your life – check up stream, pride has created a dam.
6.  Stress/anxiety/fear are not based on circumstances but perspective. A lens of grace (power in the position of the authority that we have in Christ) changes everything.
7.  Grace is like a couch that consists of two cushions – pardon and power. It cannot be one without the other. Grace, just as pardon is not grace, neither is a couch with one only seat a couch. A couch with one seat would be a chair. Grace must be both pardon and power. For it is the pardon that frees us to receive the power to abide in Christ. And it’s the power of Christ that leads to pardon.
8.  “Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.” John Piper
9.  A perspective of grace says: “I don’t know what, but I do that – there I can rest assured that all is well.”
10. Grace is also a bit like a pair of snow shoes. The stuff and snow of life, abound. Grace doesn’t mean the stuff goes away, grace means we have the ability to walk on top of, or through it.
11. Grace is the ability to abide in Christ.
12. Grace is not cheap. It cost Christ everything to give it, and it will cost our flesh everything to receive it. A grace that costs nothing is a cheap fake, that lacks the power to transform.
13.  A surrendered heart is the only one that will receive grace. For God resists the proud (pride is the root behind the illusion of control) but gives grace to the humble. Humility is seeing ourselves as God sees us and coming into agreement with Him, on that. Grace reflects that agreement, it acknowledges the sin, but also our position and transformed state of redemption.
14.  Grace does not leave us at sin, it must transform us to righteous, otherwise we are worshiping ourselves and a free ticket out of Hell. Not Christ. A grace that does not change us, is not a biblical grace.
15.  Grace embraces our dependency on Christ.
16.  For our souls to be at rest, we must be blanketed in grace.
17.  You cannot give grace to another soul, if you have not received or known grace from the One who made your soul.
18. “Grace interpreted as a principle…grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom. Grace as a living word…as our comfort in tribulation and as a summons to discipleship, costly grace is the only pure grace…”
19. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, page 53
20. Grace is the power to go with the change. To trust the Lord’s goodness that He has our best interest in mind. It’s flexibility. Stress, worry and fear dissipate in the presence of grace.
21. There are no good days. There are no bad days. There are only days of grace.
22. Grace is learning to let go of expectations while still hoping and loving.
23. It’s not the size of the issue that brings you to your knees, but that fact that you get to your knees that matters.That humbles me. And there is where the grace begins.
24. Grace isn’t something we can fully know until we have experienced it.
25. There are as many shades of grace as there is of love.

In 2012 I received grace upon grace! Thank you Jesus! “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth….¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

From His fullness – in Christ there is no end. And neither is there an end to His grace! If you my friend need grace for the things of 2013 – He is so willing to give it and to teach you more about it!

Happy New Year!