Understand How Grace Works

What is grace? Some desribe it as the unmerited favor of God. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word arises in the 12th century Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin gratia favor, charm, thanks, from gratus pleasing, grateful; akin to Sanskrit gṛṇāti he praises. The primary definition is "unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification b: a virtue coming from God c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace".

I want to say it is much more interactive than that definition implies. Grace is the ground or substance upon which faith stands before God. It is the breath of God through which we live, and move, and have our being.

It is like a river whose headwaters are the throne of God. Your Daily Grace is written to help you navigate that river, understand its flow, and be carried along by it. I believe its current has cut a pathway in the earth. Occasionally it floods over those regular channels but more often than not follows a narrow pathway.

There is only one place to launch out into or enter the river. That beginning place is repentance. The flow carries us from there into believing, building up our most holy faith, blessing, bringing life, and breaking through. Trying to access the river other than beginning in repentance will eventually drown our hopes of reaching eternal life.

Isaiah carried the hope that someday multitudes would follow this path; they would seek and find the Source of Life.

"This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isa 2:1-5)