Another tidbit from the Beth Moore study I’m doing (Sacred Secrets):

People who have been deeply graced by God never withhold grace from other people, but people who don’t feel like they’ve been terribly graced are the meanest people on the planet.

This statement was first greeted with laughter then a pensive silence as women all over the room scribbled it in their notes.

I don’t know if I should be ashamed to admit it, but one person immediately flew to my mind. And I knew they had never been graced. They would claim they have been because they claim to know Christ as their Savior.

A friend of mine, a retired therapist, once told me, “When actions and words don’t match up, it’s the actions that count.”

Using that as my yardstick, I can see the truth of what Beth said.

Ungraced people may say the right things, but they are incapable of putting feet or action to their words. They may say they care for you, but until they show it tangibly, it’s empty rhetoric, clanging cymbals without love. And they’re just plain mean.

Oh God, I’ve been graced so, please don’t let me ever withhold grace from others. Let your mercy and grace and love flow through me. Show me how to grace someone who doesn’t feel graced.

I almost deleted those words above because I have a feeling I’ll soon be given an opportunity to do just that. I continue to pray I won’t fail; that when given the choice to forgive or hold to a hurt, that I’ll choose grace.

Romans 5:20: But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Enjoy this song: http://youtu.be/7x35TejEYns