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Relationships: Live In Grace
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Biblical Tips On Relationships:
A Lifestyle of Grace
For good relationships, develop a lifestyle of grace.
Imagine how wonderful our relationships would be if we stopped judgment, criticism, and indifference and simply offered grace.
For today, offer people the same grace that Jesus offers you.
Luke 11:4 (NIV)
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
Offer Preceding Grace
Some live in the darkness of sin. Our temptation is to offer suggestions and/or criticism or withdraw completely. Jesus’ grace preceded our acceptance of it.
For day, offer your preceding grace, even if people do not request or deserve it.
Matt 9:12-13
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Offer Justifying Grace
We are justified by grace when we confess and ask Jesus into our lives. People who have harmed you may confess and ask you back into their lives.
For today, if people ask for your forgiveness, regardless of the offense, offer them your justifying grace.
Rom 3:23-24 (NIV)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Offer Sanctifying Grace
Even the best people in your life will occasionally let you down. While God’s justifying grace makes us perfect, holiness is a process of sanctification. Like Paul in Romans 7:18-20, everyone does what they do not want to do. God’s sanctifying grace offers us continual relationship and love as he is making us holy.
For today, love people with sanctifying grace as they stumble and fall.
Hebrews 10:14 (NIV)
Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Rom 7:18-20 (NIV)
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Note: Do not confuse grace with trust. We offer trust based on facts and history. Never put yourself or others in danger because you offered grace. Give people time to earn back your trust.
copyright by Cheryle M. Touchton
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