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Grace is such a funny word. When you attach God to the word grace, you’re more deeply intrigued by what it means. What people think it means doesn’t clearly give light to what it really means. Most people will tell you that it saves us, that it’s God ultimate pardon for our sin. The problem with that thinking is that you only understand a small percentage of what grace really does in our lives. I am no expert in the subject of grace. I too have had these misconceptions. As I’ve continued my journey with God, I’ve learned more about what grace is and how it’s changed my life.

For of His fullness we have received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. – John 1:16-17 NASB

A few of my friends and I were having a discussion the other morning. In the past, I believed that we receive additional grace, power, whatever it may be from God everyday. I was in a mindset that I had to dig in and press God for things that I needed. But if we actually read what the Bible is trying to tell us… it’s that we have it all. He gave it ALL to us. If we have it all, then why do we enter into seasons of breakthrough? I think it’s less that God is giving them to us and more to do with us realizing what He gave us in the first place. Grace falls into the same category.

If the forgiveness of our sin is only part of what grace does, what does the other part do? And why does grace abound more where sin is? In my opinion, grace is the proactive antithesis of fear through free will. When we read about grace in Romans, it addresses fears about sin and ultimately decision making in the church. And yet love isn’t used to discount those fears. It’s grace that does. Decision making has been so engulfed in fear in the church because we just don’t want to do the “wrong thing”. And yet all that pressure causes us to do the things that we didn’t want to do in the first place. Free will is powerful. It’s powerful because we, ourselves, are powerful. Our decisions change things for either the better or the worst. Yet in the church, we haven’t grasped the enormity of what grace does for us. We haven’t realized that grace covers our every decision. People are afraid to make decisions because they’re afraid of making a mistake.. afraid of getting out of God’s will… Personally, I think that’s crap. Using religion to mask your fears only disables you from reaching your full potential. Listen, if you love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and with all your strength… how can you possibly think you can go out of His will? People don’t casually go out of God’s will, it’s intentional. Those people confined themselves into so many fear based boundaries, that they eventually lost their way.

I can’t reiterate this enough: grace covers our free will. Our decisions somehow become more powerful when they’re infused with grace. It no longer looks like right or wrong, it looks like good or great. I still don’t think I fully understand what grace is doing in our lives. But the more I learn about grace, the more fear that’s driven out of my decision making and the more empowered I feel to make important decisions in my life.