Grace and its importance in world today

A Brief Introduction To Grace 
First Written on Jan 2011
Posted  Jan-17th, 2012
Shan Sharma

In the midst of all that goes on in our daily lives, there are elements to our life which tend to drift to our peripheries. Our vision is often without fail zoomed in to life of self, temporal challenges, opportunities and threats along with self assessment of personal and situational weaknesses and strengths. 

What is grace? The Greek word Charis is defined as that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech, good will, loving-kindness, favour of the merciful kindness. Benefit, bounty thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward. 

Why do we need grace ? Lets see what happens when we do not receive grace in our situation. You can self condemn yourself based on a self made yard stick which may totally exclude how others view you, or may only include how others sees you, while totally ignoring the nature of others. Also, it can totally ignore what the bible has to say about you in this situation. 

Grace allows us to give favor to ourselves by knowing that we are not the subject of judgement of others, even if it may seem so. Furthermore, many times we are in need for grace from others. However, now I need to introduce the correct basis of grace. Grace has always been attributed as the nature and character of God's action towards us. Grace is when I receive a rewarding position of benefit which I do not deserve. 

So how does this apply to me? We humans have a relatively short conscious life span. As we grow from infancy we start to form patters and habits that are not necessarily to our benefit. These patterns and habits may include being angry, stubborn, feeling helpless, lonely, ashamed, greedy, remorseful, depressed and so on. On the positive side, we develop patterns like being happy, hard working, caring, sharing, etc. Based on our life cycles we develop opinions about ourselves and then make them real. What we really need is a higher perspective not only of ourselves but also of others around us. The bible has immense real wisdom and knowledge that produces life by identifying and reducing self damaging habits, patterns, making room for Gods thoughts, and then filling these chambers in our soul with the right thoughts and perspectives that are Gods. This life producing transformation is an operation of grace, it applies grace to us, thereby changing us, and then it produces grace through us towards us and towards others bringing in life and truth in all situations. 

Forgiveness is the greatest act of grace that God has towards all men. This act was carried out on the Cross through Jesus Christ as an act of Gods self sacrificing love towards His creation.