40th Devotional/Commentary

The Indescribable Grace Of God
Part 2

November 9, 2025 /

Let’s consider how grace first works in our lives to bring us into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. After this initial transaction of grace, God will continue to work in our lives through His cycles of grace.

GOD & His Cycles Of Grace

Me

The left arrow above represents grace coming down in conviction from God and passing through me, as I repent and place all of my faith in Jesus Christ...as my personal Lord and Savior.

The right arrow above represents the Holy Spirit taking my spirit and soul back up to God to complete the conversion experience.

The Holy Spirit presents my spirit and soul, as a gift to God as a completed transaction, of my believing in Christ through His grace. I am then an eternal child of God!

Please envision the diagram above, illustrating how we interact with God...through His grace and by His grace. The grace is designed to continually flow from God down to us and then through us, back to God...as spiritual fruit, spiritual growth, and spiritual victories.

Once we have used grace given to us, then we are prepared to receive another round (cycle) of grace. This continuous flow never has to stop.  The only thing that will stop it, is if we resist it.

In Psychology, there is a process called a “virtuous cycle” or “virtuous circle”. It is the positive counterpart to a "vicious cycle", where negative events create a downward spiral.

In a virtuous cycle, a series of positive actions and outcomes reinforce one another, creating a self-sustaining loop of continuous improvement. This process can be broken down into three phases:

  • A trigger: The cycle often begins with an intentional, small action or a single positive event.
  • A positive feedback loop: This initial success creates positive momentum, leading to more positive actions and outcomes.
  • Self-reinforcement: The cycle gains momentum and becomes self-reinforcing, meaning the system is pushed further and further in a positive direction, becoming less likely to stop.

In biblical spirituality, there is a similar process or pattern, which the psychological concepts are really based upon. The spiritual concepts came first and the psychological concepts were later based upon them.

Therefore, we can call the spiritual cycles “grace cycles” or “grace circles”, because they are based upon the continued use of God’s grace in our moment by moment living, which results in victorious Christ-like living.

In the psychological examples, a series of positive actions and their outcomes reinforce one another, creating a self-sustaining loop of continuous improvement.

In spiritual cycles, a Christian will begin a grace cycle, by using grace given by God in any given situation, to act or react in harmony with God’s will...which produces the first step of the cycle.

Then God gives more grace, which the Christian can then use to continue the cycle of victory. This creates the grace-sustaining loop of continuous obedience and spiritual and moral growth (Christ-likeness).

The spiritual cycle gains momentum and becomes self-reinforcing by the active grace working in us. This means the spiritual system is pushed further and further in a positive direction of continued obedience (use of grace), and is less likely to stop...by personal resistance.

Personal resistance to grace is the only thing that can stop or break a “grace cycle” or “grace circle”. If we resist grace, we then break that forward momentum of victory. If not recognized and confessed to God immediately, we will begin a “downward cycle” without the power of grace and left to our weaknesses and devices.

This is when negative consequences are manifested in our lives and we find ourselves in a downward spiral...spiritually and/or morally. There are no limits to the depths we can fall in this downward spiral, which is a scary thing.

The only way to escape a downward spiral is to sincerely acknowledge to God, that we resisted His grace. We said no to His grace in some experience we faced. We must explain to God how we did that. He already knows, but He wants to see that we really know and are willing to admit it specifically. He will know when we have been forthcoming.

*Text in parenthesis are Gene’s commentary. 

1 John 5-10: This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light (through circles of grace), as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned (when we have), we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us.

There are some people in the Bible, who continually received the grace given to them by God, and therefore lived in victory. They never resisted God’s grace, and therefore, never fell into sin. The Bible never recorded one even one negative thing about their lives. What an example and encouragement they are to us of how powerful God’s grace can be. Here are a few of those people.

Enoch

Scripture records that before God took Enoch to Heaven without dying, Enoch had this testimony or this record, “that before God took him, he pleased God”. God never said this about anyone else in the Bible, except Jesus Christ. Enoch pleased God. In fact, he pleased God so much, that God basically said (in my own interpretation), “Enoch...just come on up here and be with me now.” 

https://believer.com/frequently-asked-questions/enoch-in-heaven

We know that without grace, Enoch could have never lived such a life. He was 365 years old when God took him up to heaven alive. So, he grew up using God’s grace to live a godly life and he continued using God’s grace to live godly until God took him. From the time he became conscious of God, all he wanted to do was please Him.

Enoch was a God-seeker and a God-pleaser. That’s all he cared about...like Paul who said, “for me to go on living is so Christ can live through me and for me to die is my gain”.

Noah

Genesis 6:5-8: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them”. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/myth-and-realism-in-noahs-ark

Noah is another incredible example of someone who used the grace of God to avoid sin and live in a way that was pleasing to God Almighty.

Genesis 6:9 says that Noah was a righteous man, who was blameless (without blame) in his generation (the time in which he lived). No one could point a finger at him and accuse him of doing something wrong.

This verse also explains how he could live such a life without sin...”He walked with God”. God gave Noah grace to walk with Him and Noah used that grace. He did not resist it or set it aside. The simple by-product of that walk was a righteous life. None of us can live a righteous life on our own or in our own power.

Remember Genesis 6:8 said that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. As this translation says Noah found favor, other translators say Noah found grace. The Hebrew word is חן, which can be translated grace or favor.

Remember the foundational concepts of grace:

1.   Grace gives us the godly desires we need to do what is right.

2.   Grace gives us the godly motivation we need to do what is right.

3.   Grace gives us the godly influence we need to do what is right.

We can say here in Genesis 6:8, that God gave grace to Noah and as Noah received that grace and used it in his life, amongst the wicked and evil surroundings he lived in, that Noah then found favor before God.

Genesis 7:1 states how God found Noah righteous in his generation, and because of this, God told Noah to build the Ark, which would save Noah and his entire family (8 people) from the coming destruction of a worldwide flood.

Then Genesis 7:5 says how Noah did all (everything) that the Lord had commanded him to do. Noah did not leave a single thing undone.

Not only did Noah do everything God told him to do in building the ark (of salvation), which took 120 years to build, but Noah also used the grace God had given him to preach to anyone and everyone to repent, the entire time he was doing the construction work on the Ark. 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness”.

It took perseverance (provided by grace) to build the ark over 120 years and not give up. It took courage (provided by grace) to preach to untold crowds of ungodly people, continually questioning and mocking Noah, as he worked. The faith in his God, provided by grace, allowed him to finish the Ark, so that he and his family were saved from the flood...as the entire world outside the Ark was destroyed.

Therefore, Noah is a perfect example of using the grace of God to do what needed to be done for himself and his family. There is not one negative thing recorded about Noah’s life or his faith, except the drunkenness he experienced when he had gotten off the Ark, when the flood was over.

Genesis 9:20-23 explain how Noah had been a man of the soil before the flood. So, after the flood, Noah naturally resumed his love to grow things and he planted his own vineyard. After the grape harvest, Noah made some wine, and got drunk...which resulted in his son Ham seeing his father naked, which had terrible consequences.

But the process of fermentation did not occur before the flood. Noah would have been used to growing grapes and harvesting them for pure grape juice before the flood. Therefore, after the flood when he grew his grapes, somehow some of them decayed and had an alcoholic content, but Noah did not understand that before he consumed the wine.

So, the context of Noah’s experience indicates he did not know this wine would be intoxicating. He did not even know what it was like to be drunk, because no one before the flood had ever been drunk, because they had never had access to fermented wine before.

Therefore, Noah’s drunkenness was not a deliberate sin or an intentional sin...that would be a blemish on his godly character and his walk with God. And after Noah experienced drunkenness and what it did to him and his son, it is doubtful he ever consumed fermented wine again or strong drink.

When God allowed Noah to live another 350 years after the flood, it was a good affirmation of God staying pleased with Noah’s life. Noah ended up living 950 years, which is the longest life recorded in the Bible, except for Methuselah’s 969 years. Methuselah was Noah’s grandfather and died during the same year the flood came (while Noah would have been finishing up the Ark), but he died before the flood arrived.

Noah received grace from God.

That grace gave Noah a spirit of faith and obedience.

His faith and obedience saved him and his family from destruction.

Joseph

Joseph is another fascinating case. He was one of the most influential people in history. His life, his experiences, and what he did affected entire nations in the middle eastern part of the world without him ever leaving Egypt once, except to bury his father back in Palestine.

Through the wisdom God gave Joseph, during the most distressful days of his life, he saved untold numbers of nations from starvation and made Egypt the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, and provided a refuge for his family to live out their natural lives.

People can claim Joseph was spoiled by Jacob and he was, but that was not Joseph’s fault. That was Jacob’s doing. Jacob lavished favor upon Joseph as he grew up, as Jacob’s first-born son of his beloved wife Rachel, who later died, as she was giving birth to Benjamin.

So, Joseph had to finish growing up without his mother and Jacob made sure Joseph had everything he needed and more, as illustrated by the multicolored coat Jacob had made only for Joseph...not for any of his other half-brothers.

This really angered and frustrated his older brothers and eventually caused them to design a plan to get rid of Joseph, but God used their evil schemes to redirect Joseph's life into a place of greatness (which eventually saved even those evil-minded brothers themselves),

Note: Joseph only had one full-blooded brother.... Benjamin. His other ten brothers were half-brothers. They all had Jacob as their father, but there were four mothers who gave Jacob his 12 children. And... I really don’t think Benjamin (Joseph’s one full-blooded brother resented Joseph) since he was so young, he probably did not understand everything going on between all of the brothers.

So, Joseph did grow up in a unique and blessed way, but when it was his turn to show responsibility, God gave him the grace to step right up to the plate. He never stopped stepping up to the plate in being morally and spiritually responsible and being disciplined and obedient to those he served.

From the time he was forcefully taken away from home at the age of 17, by grace he demonstrated a servant’s heart everywhere he lived and worked, and he brought blessings upon those he served. He strove to make those he was around and served as successful as possible and he always succeeded.

When he was sorely tempted, he always used God’s grace to resist and do God’s perfect will. He was as King David, a man after God’s own heart. The Scripture does not record a single time Joseph erred or gave into sin or mistreated others. Let us review some examples of his faithfulness to God and his use of God’s marvelous grace, without which...he would have failed...as many of us do.

1st Example: Joseph’s interactions and dealings with his brothers who so harshly betrayed him.

Let us consider how God gave Joseph (as a teenager) those dreams about his father and mother and siblings bowing down to Joseph in a spirit of respect and reverence.

 

https://christianpublishinghouse.co/2019/08/31/genesis-3725-28-36-381-391-otbdc-was-joseph-sold-to-ishmaelites-or-to-midianites/

His siblings really went bananas over that idea, but it happened just as Joseph dreamed...and again those dreams were not Joseph’s doing, they were God’s doing.

Joseph just shared with his family, what God caused him to dream and nobody liked it. We can all imagine how we would feel if one of our children or siblings dreamed that about us, that we would bow down to them and/or serve them. It caused great tension in the family.

This tension grew to the point; the older brothers could not stand the sight of Joseph. Every time they saw him, they thought of his special coat and his dreams. Despite consumed them until they planned his demise...a way to get rid of him in a way they could hide their evil betrayal from their Father.

Many times, God’s grace is needed most inside family relationships and among relatives. After the family, interactions in church, and on our jobs...is where grace is sorely needed, but many times resisted...as with Joseph’s siblings.

First, they were just going to kill him and tell Jacob he was eaten by a wild animal. Then, they decided they did not want his blood on their corporate conscience, so they sold him as a slave to a group of merchant traders on the way to Egypt to do business.

Genesis 37:18-36: When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams”!

But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him” ... he said. “Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him”. Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.

So, when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty and there was no water in it. But then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood”! And his brothers agreed. So, when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.

Sometime later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern. When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do now”?

Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son”?

Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!”  Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for his son for a long time.  His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave mourning for my son”, he would say and then he would weep.

Meanwhile, the Midianite traders arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard.

Now, this is where Joseph’s brothers refused to use the grace of God, that was available to them to deal with what they saw as their younger brother’s foolishness. God’s grace would have helped them overlook their conclusions about Joseph’s motives and trust God to work out these family tensions. But their pride rejected the grace and they did what their ignorant hearts wanted to do.

Later on, when they stood before Joseph as the ruler of Egypt, they acknowledged among themselves how badly they treated their brother and they would soon find themselves fulfilling Joseph’s dream about them falling down before him in respect and submission. What they had rejected earlier in life, now came upon them. God promised this consequence in Job 3:25, where it says, “What I feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me”.

https://www.goodsalt.com/the-brothers-bow-to-joseph-rhpas0947?srsltid=AfmBOor4QXxFV4gp2Ko48wjc54zYEw1ceK_oxUGt5zzXrNa-jfwNMO3b

Genesis 42:21-23: They said to one another, “Surely, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. That’s why this distress has come on us”.

Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood”.   They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.

Now it is Joseph’s turn to choose or reject God’s grace. He could either reject God’s grace and take revenge on his brothers and throw them into prison for life or he could accept God’s grace and forgive them and restore them and save their lives from starvation. He chose the way of grace, as you can see from these select verses.

Genesis 43:26: When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 

Genesis 44:14-16: Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination”?

“What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup”.

Genesis 45:1-28: Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So, there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me”.  When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’

“You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.  Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly”.

Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

How many families across the world need this work of grace in their families?

The Apostle Paul

The works of grace in Paul’s life are the last examples we will study in this section. Paul's life was filled with works (cycles) of grace from start to finish. You could save that Paul’s life was the embodiment of grace. He lived out grace and pleads with us to do the same.

Embodiment: A visible representation of something abstract...as a quality (except in our study, I do not consider God’s grace as something abstract. It is more concrete than anything else in your life. God’s grace is a concrete value in our spiritual lives, our psychological lives, and our physical lives).

  • Paul’s life was the embodiment of grace.
  • Paul’s life was the objectification of grace.
  • Paul’s life was the epitome of grace.
  • Paul’s life was the actualization of grace.
  • Paul’s life was the personification of grace.
  • Paul’s life was the personalization of grace.

Again, Paul is our 4th example of someone in the Bible, who had no moral or spiritual failures mentioned, after his salvation experience on the Damascus Road. Grace took over his life and produced maybe the single greatest life ever lived after Jesus Christ.

He had the most dramatic conversion possible, from one who tried to persecute, imprison, and kill Christians, to the church’s greatest evangelist and missionary.

https://www.goodsalt.com/gssearch/result/index/q/damascus%20road/?srsltid=AfmBOoqrxN9FoDasHCk64dolEHmRAxtt0tUdGdZPHP3vKMwsFEr8KjUT

He went from being a super self-righteous zealot to the most humble servant of Jesus Christ. He confessed to being the worst of sinners to becoming the greatest of the saints (those who served Jesus Christ and His people in the church). His message included the truth, that if God can save Paul, He can save anyone.

God told him that he was called to suffer (Acts 9:16), as he made known the gospel of Christ, to lost and perishing souls across many nations. He was told that by the abundant grace of God, he would find the needed strength to accomplish his purpose in this life. Paul stated that...”I am what I am by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

As Paul traveled from city to city, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ and suffering the wrath of unbelievers, he became the perfect example of what God’s mercy and grace can do, for each of us.

By grace, we can be faithful to share the gospel everywhere we go and we can endure the wrath of those who oppose us. As God told Paul...” My strength is sufficient for you (it is enough)”, God also tells us how His power will be clearly manifested in and through our personal weaknesses.

As Paul did his work and God accomplished supernatural things through it, Paul always acknowledged how it was not him, but it was the grace of God that worked in and through him (1 Corinthians 15:10).

So again, after Paul’s conversion experience, there is not one negative thing recorded about him, regarding his Christian character and testimony. The grace Paul experienced everyday of his Christian life is the same grace available to you and I. We also can proclaim that we are what we are by the grace of God and we all can become what God will’s us to become by His grace.

With the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul in mind, let us look at one of the key verses Paul wrote about grace.

Titus 2:11-14: For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.

Notice in these verses from Titus, how the grace gives us the desire or the motivation, along with the moral and physical power or strength to do His will. Therefore, God expects us to do what is right and holds us accountable.

It is interesting how we can have, use, and enjoy His grace without even being conscious of it. It is really grace operating through us, as a part of own natures and personalities. Doing the good and the right just comes naturally when we are flowing with the power of grace. This makes for a delightful Christian life!

And as stated, this flow process will continue, unless we resist at some point. Then the flow is broken and all of a sudden, we are operating in our own will power and things aren’t so easy anymore.

Everything becomes a struggle and we wonder why? It is because we have lost the flow of grace through our spirit and soul.

  • You have seen family members or friends or just people you know who have lived an exemplary life for a long period of time. Then all of a sudden, he or she begins making crazy decisions and doing unwise or stupid things and he/she’s life can begin to crumble and fall apart spiritually and morally and eventually physically.
  • The loss of grace affects everything decision a person makes and every action they execute in their lives.
    • What we do.
    • How we do it.
    • Why we do it.
    • When we do it or don’t do it.
    • Where we do it.

As long as we are doing what grace is helping us do (whatever is needed doing moment by moment), as we walk through the day with the Lord Jesus, everything will be simple, straight forward, and easy. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

A Review Of Grace?

Philippians 2:13: For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.

  1. Grace is an all-powerful and active attribute of God’s holy nature. God’s nature is holiness and His attributes express His holiness. As the verse above clearly expresses, It is God, through His grace, who does the work inside of our spirits and souls...to want to do His perfect and blessed will. Think of each of these short phrases.
    • It is God: The originator of all things good.
    • Who works in you: The Holy Spirit can actually create inside of you...longings and desires and even burdens to do great things. These things can be beyond your ability to ever do them and God knows that. So, first He creates the desire and then He conveys the actual power to carry out the righteous desires He gives you.
    • To will: This means He lets you feel the motivation to do something He wants done. The motivation comes from the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit will carry out the motivation through your mind, your volition (will power), your emotions, and your physical body.
    • To act: Here the rubber meets the road in the Christian life. Many of us may feel the desire to do something for God, but we may never get around to doing it, without this supernatural push (we could procrastinate indefinitely). But this divine assist makes sure God’s will gets done through us, which will always be important to the larger context of activities going on in Christ’s kingdom on earth (the work of the kingdom).
    • To fulfill His good purpose: Because of God’s grace working supernaturally in and through our lives, we get to participate in His good purposes being done or accomplished. When we stand before the GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT (the awards platform), we will sure be grateful God chose to work through us, at all of those times in our lives, when we know we were involved in doing something special and important and glorified God.
  1. Therefore, remember we experience all of God’s supernatural attributes through His grace. For example:
    • God’s Holiness: When you believed and trusted in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation, God’s grace transferred His holiness into your spiritual nature. That’s why 2 Peter 1:4 says we participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
    • God’s Love: When you believed and trusted in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation, Christ’s grace baptized you inside and out with the unconditional love of God. You were immersed in the eternal pool of God’s love. As a child of God, you can never escape His reservoir of pure, righteous, unconditional love. That’s why Romans 8:35-38 says we can never be separated from God’s love.
      • Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?
      • Does it mean He no longer loves us, if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
      • As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day. We are being slaughtered like sheep.
      • No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
      • And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
      • No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed (by grace) in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    • God’s goodness: When you believed and trusted in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation, God’s grace made you the eternal recipient of His goodness. In the heart and mind of God, He only desires to be good to people. He wants the best for them. He wants them to feel His goodness. He wants to bless them with His goodness. Can you imagine? That is why Romans 2:4 explains that it is God’s goodness that leads us to repentance and salvation to start with. 
      • Exodus 34:6: The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.
      • Psalm 145:5-7: Men shall speak of the mightiness of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness.
      • Psalm 145:9: The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works (you are one of His works – Ephesians 2:8-10).
      • Psalm 23:6: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
      • James 1:17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
      • Psalm 27:13: I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
      • Psalm 107:8-9: Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with
      • Psalm 31:19-20: Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
    • God’s Wisdom: As addressed above, grace allows us to think God’s thoughts and to feel God’s thoughts and to grasp the spirit of God’s thoughts. In doing this day after day and month after month, the natural consequence of this is wisdom. One day we wake up and we see life and things in the world the way God sees them. Then we are able to act and respond the way Christ would. This is grace and what a blessing to not be blinded by the world any longer. The wisdom of God is in His grace. Experience grace and you will experience wisdom.
      • 2 Corinthians 1:12: Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom, but according to God’s grace.
      • 1 Corinthians 1:30: It is because of Him, that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (All conveyed through grace.)
      • 1 Corinthians 2:16: Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

...This is one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible. Paul explains here, that when you receive Christ into your life, you inherit His mind. When His life comes into your life, you acquire His mind at the same time. Can you grasp that? By the grace of God. He gives you the mind of His only begotten Son.

...All you have to do is let His mind think through your mind. Listen to His thoughts, His logic, His feelings, and His desires. As you do so, God’s wisdom will take over your conscious being. You will feel and love His humility, His compassion, His obedience, His patience and peace, and His purpose and vision for your life and those He brings into your life.

  • God’s Faithfulness: Numbers 23:19 explains that...God cannot lie.... God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
    • It is impossible for God to lie, because of the holiness within His nature, makes it impossible for Him to lie. There is no substance within God’s nature that is possible of expressing a lie or untruth. His holiness is also absolute purity.
    • Therefore, everything God says (His Word) is true. Every promise is true.
    • Therefore, He is totally trustworthy and We refer to this as His faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23: The LORD’S loving kindness indeed never ceases. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.

    • This is why Deuteronomy 7:9 says ..Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness is to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
    • And this is why 1 Thessalonians 5:24 adds to that, Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
    • For you, one of the first things you will notice after receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into your life, is the desire you will naturally begin to have (because of grace) to be truthful. You will no longer feel a compulsion to be untruthful or deceive someone.

The grace of Christ and the mind of Christ in you, will love to speak truth. You will find this one of the greatest freedoms you could imagine. And...in being truthful, you will, like Christ, be faithful. His faithfulness will be living in you and through you.

  • God’s Mercy: There are so many more of God’s attributes that should be identified and mentioned, but time does not permit. So, let us end with God’s attribute of mercy, which again...flows down to us from grace.

Hebrews 4:16: Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.


https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/young-woman-holding-holy-bible-in-her-hands-over-beam-of-light-gm1055582192-282061424?searchscope=image%2Cfilm

Note how this passage clearly states that mercy comes down from the throne of grace. We would all perish without God’s mercy. And yet, we do not deserve God’s mercy in the least bit. In fact, The Scriptures state that we deserve the opposite of mercy, which is “Wrath”.

Ephesians 2:3: Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

  • So, why would God show mercy to us, when we deserve wrath? Because mercy is a part of His holiness and through His grace, He makes a choice to love us and show that mercy. He does not have to. No one can make Him show mercy. He owes no person mercy. But once again, His grace overrules every reason to show wrath and to give mercy...through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-5: God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

2 Corinthians 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort...

Titus 3:5: He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. (Conveyed through grace).

    • Therefore...once again, when you received Christ into your life, His grace transferred His merciful spirit into your spirit. Now, by that grace, you will begin to be a merciful person yourself.

Being unmerciful, will not please you or bring you any kind of satisfaction. Your natural desire will be to practice being merciful, because you are driven by the grace of Jesus Christ...grace will compel you.

    • In the Bible, the word ‘compel’ means to force, drive, or impel something or someone forward. It also refers to an inner drive or force...inside of you.

Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this, that He who began a good work (compelling you forward through grace) in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

    • In Luke 10:33-34: The Good Samaritan came upon a severely wounded man was (from an attack by thieves) and when he saw him, he took pity on him (showed mercy). He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
    • This Good Samaritan felt the grace of God compelling him to minister to this stranger in every way he could. The grace of God would not let him look the other way and walk on by as the priest and Levite had done.

This Good Samaritan said yes to the prompting of grace during that day of his life. When he got out of bed that morning, he had no idea, God had this experience in store for him, but he received the grace that was waiting for him, as he crawled out of bed and said good morning to the Lord.

    • So, he is a supreme example to us of how to receive the grace each morning, that the Holy Spirit is waiting to give us. This is the first thing on the docket of Christ’s agenda for our lives each day. So, don’t resist and lose it, but embrace it and use it.
  1. Grace is a transformative power in people. By grace, we are able to discern the will of God as we live our lives. As the Spirit is giving us this discernment, He also provides the power to do what is discerned. We feel both the desire and the power to do God’s perfect will...as He has revealed it, which will always be in harmony with Scripture.
    • Grace is a supernatural and sovereign influence that operates in individuals.
    • Grace is the direct influence the Holy Spirit exercises upon us to do God’s will moment by moment, day by day.
    • The Holy Spirit prompts us to go do this or that or prompts us to refrain doing this or that. And these promptings can relate to the smallest, most minute thing we could encounter on any given day or the promptings could relate to the biggest – life changing events in our lives.
    • God does not judge importance by size.
    • The Holy Spirit can prompt us to go do something now...meaning immediately or to refrain from going and doing something until a specific time in the future.

Therefore, God’s active grace in our lives can be like an on and off switch, relating to our words and/or actions.

  1. Grace motivates and empowers individuals to overcome sin, so they can do God’s moral and spiritual will. This spiritual power leads us to live a righteous life, without even trying.

Doing the right and avoiding the wrong can just come naturally and easy...and we will experience the joy of the Lord as we live by this spiritual power...Nehemiah 8:10: The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Paul said he was what he was by the grace of God. And remember how JESUS said...that apart from Him (and His grace) we can do nothing.

Study King Saul’s experience when he tried to take matters into his own hands and offer up a sacrifice he was not authorized to offer up. He set aside God’s grace and did what he thought best, due to the pressures around him, and then he tried to rationalize it, when confronted by Samuel the Priest. He lost his kingship over this event.

  1. Grace causes faith and trust to grow.
  2. Grace is the source of strength and enablement for believers.
  3. Grace allows us to think God’s thoughts and as we think God’s thoughts, we acquire wisdom without even realizing it, until it is needed later on.
  4. Grace also allows us to actually feel God’s thoughts. From feeling God’s thoughts over and over and over, the character qualities of the Lord Jesus begin to grow and strengthen in our soul.

As this continues to happen in repeated cycles, the convictions of God become rooted in our lives like the roots of a giant oak tree, that can with stand all kinds of weather (outside forces...hurricanes, tornados, etc...)Grace grows strong spiritual roots in our souls, from which mighty convictions take hold, like the roots of this oak tree.

          Aspen Trees and Aspen Groves

Grace also grows a mighty network of spiritual roots in our lives, that surface at the right time in visible spiritual convictions, like the physical roots seen under a grove of aspen trees that spread out everywhere, but are totally connected...so that all of the trees are actually one single organism working together to face life.

Grace is like one single source of God’s spiritual power and energy that holds everything together in our lives. As you enjoy the limited information on aspen trees below, visualize how the grace of God is continually working to use all of God’s attributes (like a root system) to make you into the Christ-like person you were designed to be.

Information below about aspen groves is from: https://www.google.com/search?q=Imagine+the+convenience+of+having+all+those+beautiful+trees+actually+be+one+massive+organism+sharing+resources+and+information+underground.&client=safari&sca_esv=348adf5b6927ae42&channel=iphone_bm&sxsrf=AE3TifOi5D3E-tTNefts4fFMaJXAima8bQ%3A1758055256268&source=hp&ei=WMvJaJ_gDpK6kPIP3rSA2QM&iflsig=AOw8s4IAAAAAaMnZaK_JRp-0mFPn_17_3rjxDYiO9dwd&ved=0ahUKEwif7KyYkt6PAxUSHUQIHV4aIDsQ4dUDCBo&uact=5&oq=Imagine+the+convenience+of+having+all+those+beautiful+trees+actually+be+one+massive+organism+sharing+resources+and+information+underground.&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IosBSW1hZ2luZSB0aGUgY29udmVuaWVuY2Ugb2YgaGF2aW5nIGFsbCB0aG9zZSBiZWF1dGlmdWwgdHJlZXMgYWN0dWFsbHkgYmUgb25lIG1hc3NpdmUgb3JnYW5pc20gc2hhcmluZyByZXNvdXJjZXMgYW5kIGluZm9ybWF0aW9uIHVuZGVyZ3JvdW5kLjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjIHECMYJxjqAjINECMY8AUYJxjJAhjqAkiYEFCvBlivBnABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQD4AQL4AQGYAgGgAgioAgqYAwjxBXRhn2oBfGEakgcBMaAHALIHALgHAMIHAzItMcgHBg&sclient=gws-wiz

The most massive organism on earth

In central Utah's Fishlake National Forest, a single male quaking aspen clone named Pando (Latin for "I spread") is considered the most massive and one of the oldest known living organisms on Earth. The Pando colony in Utah is a remarkable example of interconnected aspen trees forming a massive clonal colony. Covering over 100 acres, Pando is often referred to as one of the world’s most extensive living organisms. Within Pando, each tree is genetically identical, sharing a root system that connects them underground. This interconnected network enables them to communicate and share resources effectively, creating a unified and resilient community of trees.

Pando consists of a vast root system with nearly 50,000 cloned stems, spread over an area of more than 40 hectares. Credit: George Rose/Getty

  • One tree, one root system: What appears to be a forest of over 40,000 distinct trunks is actually a single, genetically identical organism connected by one enormous underground root system.
  • Sharing and regeneration: While individual trunks live for around 100–130 years, the vast root system has been regenerating for thousands of years. It can also share resources, which allows the "trees" to transition to spring simultaneously.
  • Aspen’s reproduction: They reproduce through suckering, leading to genetically identical trees within clonal colonies that share resources.
  • Aspen colonies like Pando in Utah showcase interconnected trees with shared root systems, creating a unified and resilient community.
  • Aspen colonies play a crucial role in supporting ecosystems by enriching soil, providing habitats for wildlife, and contributing to climate regulation.

Grace is the dynamic force that leads an individual to personal salvation in Jesus Christ...salvation is given to an individual through faith, conveyed by grace.

Jesus came into this world full of grace and truth and He is the ultimate source of grace for any individual.

Thank you for the time you invested in reading Part 2 of our study of God’s grace. I pray these various blessings conveyed by grace will fill your life this week. Next time, we will focus on other fascinating elements found in the grace of God.

Yours in Christ,

Gene

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