Did you know that there are presently about 1500 billionaires in the world according to Forbes Magazine?  You and I may not be billionaires in the world’s eyes, but the Bible tells us that we have been blessed with incomparable riches through God’s grace. 

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… 
(Ephesians 2:6-8, NIV)

  Though you may not feel it, you are richer than any billionaire through his grace!

Treasures are often found in dark places. 

And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness--secret riches.
I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name. (Isaiah 45:3 NLT)
 I did not realize that some of the treasures God wanted to give me were hidden in darkness. I had to go to dark places—through dark times—to see his grace more clearly and plainly.  That is where he went to give us his grace. And that is where his grace shines the brightest...

We can sometimes feel insignificant, small or even worthless. Negative perceptions from our backgrounds and our upbringing can influence our thinking. Grace teaches us to think differently about ourselves and about others.  God wants to work powerfully through us through his grace.  

We can often feel unlovable, especially if someone really knew us. A lot of us walk around hating ourselves even as Christians. We, then, assume that God couldn't love someone like us. Ask yourself: Would God sacrifice his Son for someone he didn’t love? When someone mentions grace, we understand that it is God's love that motivated him. But do we really appreciate and comprehend its true and incredible meaning? The Bible says that we were enemies of God—rejects in God’s eyes and unlovable because of our sins. We were sinners who did not deserve to be loved.  

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. (Romans 5:8-10, NLT)    

The reality is that Jesus died for you when you were the most unlovable, not when we were the most righteous.  To God, you are always lovable, because nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God! (Romans 8:39)

It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery…You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:1, 4, NIV)

Have you set up laws and rules in your life? Or are you motivated by the grace of God?  At the same time, it can be hard to balance faith in God’s grace with a life of holiness. For this reason we can create rule upon rule for ourselves in order to “measure up” to a certain level of spirituality.   
 One thing is for sure: we can never be perfect enough. No matter how much we fight against it, we will sin again and again. Therefore, Paul reminds us to be careful not to burden ourselves with the chains of unnecessary requirements—i.e., legalism—and fall away from grace.We can, however, achieve righteousness through faith.  The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:22-24, NIV)
Therefore, remember that we have true freedom and achieve righteousness before God, if we live by faith in Christ and not by laws. Faith cannot be measured by how faultless we are. However, for each of us, our faith was sufficient to receive his grace. 

Do you think that living in a perfect world would help to keep you from sinning?  What if everything in your life was complete and without problems, would you be different from who you are today?
So many times we blame our boss, our teacher, our hurtful friend or our unkind relatives for our "mistakes." 

The story of Adam and Eve shows us how we would fare if given a chance to live in a world of plenty where everything was picture-perfect, and we would want for nothing. We would be just like Adam and Eve. It would only be a matter of time before we made the same mistake. They had no problems. God gave them life and was the perfect Father. He never abused them—no dysfunctional family or relatives to deal with. They never experienced or witnessed suffering, death or pain.

For us however, we do not live in Paradise.  Temptation is always there. Sin is crouching at our doorsteps. We will fall into the deception of Satan from time to time. But praise God that he had a plan through grace, an amazing plan available whenever we call upon him. This grace should motivate us, move us and compel us to resist Satan’s schemes. God knows that we are imperfect, so he made a special contingency plan that would cost him everything he had.

 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
(2 Timothy 1:9, NIV)

Praise God that his grace makes up for all our imperfections and faults, especially since we live in a sinful world!

In most or all of our relationships, we have to prove ourselves before we are accepted or believed in.  This causes us to attempt to always prove ourselves to those who have significance in our lives.  Many times, nothing that we do is ever enough, and we live in the rat race of trying to be perfect and to look perfect to them. This is not true with our Lord and Savior.  “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:14, NIV)  In God's world, we are all made perfect in him. For this reason, we can live with joy and confidence in who we are because of Jesus and not because of someone's opinion or acceptance of us.  This is true grace...

Any special friendship or relationship that you have is a result of God's grace.  Today is Al and Gloria Baird's 53rd Anniversary.  They are a representation of God's grace in my life and I am so grateful for them!

The word 'grace' comes from the Greek word charis which means loving kindness or favor.  When God gave us his grace, he bestowed his favor upon us.  Whether you feel it or not, you are favored by God.  He continues to show his infinite love everyday.  I hope that today you can see it in the small things around you.  I saw it in a rainbow the other day.