Grace

I attended a conference last week, the title of which was "Embracing Grace".  There were some reflections on grace, of course, but I didn't hear anyone define grace.  To me grace is the empowerment of God.  God gives us power to believe, power to accept salvation, power to pray, power to live as his disciples.  Without his grace, we would be unable to do any of those things.

St. Paul mentions grace quite a bit in his letters.  Ephesians 2: 4-9 is one notable example:  Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God, by grace, made us alive when we were dead.  God seated us in the heavenly realms with Christ.  And having made us (for we are God's workmanship), he graces us to do good works.  God's grace is the power to live, to believe, to do  as he wants.  Just as we are never alone, we are never given a task which we are unable to accomplish