(1.) Of form or person
       (Proverbs 1:9; 3:22; Psalms. 45:2) 
(2.) Favor, kindness, friendship
       (Genesis 6:8; 18:3; 19:19; 2 Timothy. 1:9) 
(3.) God's forgiving mercy
       (Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:5) 
(4.) The gospel as distinguished from the law
       (John 1:17; Romans 6:14; 1 Peter 5:12) 
(5.) Gifts freely bestowed by God; as miracles,
       prophecy, tongues
      (Romans 15:15; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:8) 
(6.) Christian virtues (2 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Peter 3:18) 
(7.) The glory hereafter to be revealed (1 Peter 1:13.

Before God created man, He had a plan in place.  He knows us.  He loves us.  He knows us when we are arrogant or falsely humble.  He knows us when we truly repent of sin and when we knowingly sin and expect forgiveness without
consequences.
 
We are the only creation that was not spoken into being.  We were created uniquely, to be His friends and heirs to eternity.  He formed us to His specifications.  He breathed life into us so
that we could share our lives with Him.   He wants us to know Him, not so that we can better serve Him but so that we desire to serve Him.  He gave us His laws, not to restrict us
but so that we can better understand His plan and to protect us.  He desires us to know Him because we are in love with Him and want to know what pleases Him. He had grace in His plan for us when He created us. 
 
Grace is not something that is a privilege or right or can be earned.  Grace is amazingly simple and yet so complex that it is impossible to understand the depths and heights and value of it.  Grace has layer upon layer of complexity to it that we can only begin to comprehend. 
 
Grace is the foundation of the Christian belief system.  Without grace, we can not approach the throne of grace.  We have no way of cancelling the debt of sin that we were born with.  Grace is the message Christ brought to us then died to bestow on us.  From the beginning of Genesis to the final pages of The Revelation, God showed us the perfect picture
of Grace.
 
Today, now is the time to praise and worship the One Who gave us grace.  Now is the time to pray and ask for deeper understanding of His grace.  The more we understand, the more we appreciate and desire grace.  Study those in His word that exemplified and received grace.  They are simply a picture of us in a different time and place.  His word never changes.  He still offers grace to those who seek and ask for it.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.      

Read 2 Corinthians 12

Somewhere along the line, the gospel has been changed so that today's Christians feel that if everything isn't perfect, God doesn't love us.  We expect to get what we want when we want it, how we want it and if we don't get it, we sulk and blame God. 
     
God's Word tells us we will face trials, persecutions and tribulations.  This isn't because God has changed what He thinks.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  We can expect to face difficulties in our lives.  We aren't to be surprised by them.  God will walk with us through all that life throws at us.  He gives us challenges so that we can grow in Him, lean on Him, trust in Him. 
     
He will provide for us all we need to sustain us no matter what.  He will rejoice in us.  He will boast of us to the enemy, as He did with Job.  He will never give us more than we can handle.  He knows our limits far better than we do.
     
 God allows illness, financial difficulties, relationship failures and challenges to enter our lives.  He allows the world to malign us and gossip about us.  Even His people who are called by His name will at times be our worst enemies. Christians are prone to gossip as much as the world is, which
is a shameful sin. 
     
When death takes a loved one, we cry out in pain and confusion.  We don't understand.  He wants us to run to
Him and share the pain and questions and anger.  He can
take it.  Our weakness is the way He can help us.  He hungers
for us to lean on Him, to seek him, to cry out to Him.
     
When we rely on our own strength or finances or anything but Him, we don't seek Him.  We don't lean on the everlasting arm.  We lean on our own understanding.  We set
ourselves up for failure.  We don't know or understand the plan He has for us and we run blindly on our own path.
     
Take the challenge set before you and share it with the One Who has all the answers.  Take your pain and fears to the One Who has lived through life's worst.  He knows and understands.  He offers comfort when we have nowhere else
to turn.  He pulls us into His arms and holds us close.  He
takes our tears and stores them up.  He feels our pain.  Trust
Him to be there even when you feel the most alone.

Titus 3:4-7  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become  heirs having the hope of eternal life.                      
Read Titus 3 and Galatians 1.

 God gives grace according to His will.  He gives grace so that we may serve Him in truth and in holy awe of Who He is.  Grace is given freely to all who seek Him and His gift of eternal life.  God is no respecter of who we are or our credentials according to this world's values.  He sees our needs and offers a way out of sin into freedom and forgiveness.
        
Whatever the past sins that we have done or the sinful life we have chosen to live, God does not see a difference between us.  The only difference He sees is our willingness to accept His gift.  He sees only our potential to be His child.  He offers grace so that we receive the gift of salvation, not the punishment we deserve. 
       
Grace is receiving what we don't deserve and mercy is not receiving what we do deserve.  God offers both in abundance to those who choose the eternal rather than the temporal things that don't last.  He sent His Son to pay our debt so that we can freely come to the Throne of grace  and worship with joy and and receive with deep gratitude.  His gift of grace.
       
Ephesians 2:1-10  (Made alive in Christ)                                 

Philippians 4:11-13  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the   circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

Paul learned the secret to a good life.  He learned that whatever the situation, he could count on Jesus to be there for him.  Paul lived through situations that would have killed others.  He lived in prisons, private homes and on the road without a place to sleep.  He knew about hiding out from enemies and escaping with his life.  He knew how to be humble and how to stand up to those whose main goal was to take his life. 
    
Paul had a lifestyle of trusting in Jesus and having
faith that he would never be betrayed or deserted by the Lord.  Paul built a lifestyle of faith.  One event at a time built a faith that grew as he matured in Christ.  He never wavered in that faith after his meeting with Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
    
We can have the same level of faith.  We can live with a lifestyle of faith.  It doesn't happen all at once.  It is a process, a day to day habit of trusting regardless of the
circumstances.  Faith does not rely on emotions.  It isn't based on feelings.  "I'll believe it when I see it" doesn't fit into a faith based lifestyle.  Oxygen is critical to life but we can't feel or see or taste it.  We just know it is there.  Faith is the same.  It is critical to a Christian walk.  Faith means we trust that when we walk the valley or stand on the mountain peak, we know we are not alone.  We wake in the morning and lie down at night with the same faith in the Lord.
    
There will be times when our faith wavers.  We will
have days when holding on to our faith takes all we have.
We know that we may waiver but Jesus never will.  That is the Rock we stand on in the midst of turbulent waters.  That Rock will never move.  Learning this truth is the foundation of our faith.  Living this truth, day by day, builds a lifestyle of faith that will stand up to the test of time, trials and tribulation.  It is easy to have faith when all goes well but faith grows best when tested.
    
James 1:3,4  Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
 
When we develop a lifestyle of faith, we honor the Lord.
We say by the way we live that we believe what the Lord has said is fact and not up for discussion.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He doesn't change.  He never will.  That is why we can live a lifestyle of faith in the One who loves us enough to die for us.