The reality of GRACE. Last night I taught the lesson on Grace for our Celebrate Recovery group. There was so much I needed to learn about this Spiritual Gift God has given to each one of us. I use to equate Grace to Kindness. Grace is kind, but one can be kind simply because he is a kind person. An infant can be treated with kindness which has nothing to do with Grace. If one doesn’t know sin, one cannot understand Grace. If one is in denial of their sin/s, they still don’t know Grace. Grace comes to life in our personal understanding when we begin to realize God has removed the punishment we deserve and replaced it with love and acceptance. We get GRACE instead of judgment.

I lived in denial most of my life of my own sins. I measured my sins against those done to me by my brother and my dad. There is no grace in this. Satan had me believing lies rather than my seeing the beauty of God’s forgiveness and His Grace. There is no freedom found in comparing one’s sins with another one. My own sins came before me as I recognized my struggle with porn. Even more, I recognized this battle when I began the counseling which followed the first year of Celebrate Recovery. My sins were mine. I realized God’s work with dad, God’s work with Rich, God’s work with me–all due to GRACE and FORGIVENESS. This model He wants us to learn with His Holy Spirit’s help who lives within us.

God is kind. But kindness is taken to an extreme level when Grace engulfs it through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the sacrifice our Father God gave us through Him.