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God’s grace is always in harmony with God’s will. That means that although He will do for us what is good for us, it will often be in ways that are different than what we expected, desired or requested. Grace always fit two things: what we need, and what God wants. It will serve both our particulars and His purposes, ensuring that our needs are cared for and His plans are carried out. Know this: God is wisely superintending the entire cosmos while intimately attending to you and me. We don’t have to understand how God is working it all out for good; we just need to trust that He is.

Sometimes God gives to us before we ask and sometimes because we ask. While God does countless gracious things for us, in us and through us without us requesting them or even realizing them, there are some things He does only as a response to us humbly asking Him. To be sure, we don’t pray to get what we want to build our own kingdoms; we pray to get what we need to live for His. Still, God loves to be seen as generous, loves for us to appeal to His generosity, and loves to give generously to us as He deems best because He loves us. So… Pray often, celebrating the grace already given to you and requesting the grace that is yet to come.

There are two errors we often make when we consider asking Jesus for help. We either feel confident that we can ask Him for help because we’ve been “good,” or we feel hesitant to ask Him for help because we’ve been “bad.” Both of those ideas twist God’s kingdom into a meritocracy in which we submit our requests (or not) based on our deeds. The truth is, we don’t deserve God’s help. But because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can have it as a gift on the basis of His grace, not our goodness. Trust in Him and confidently ask for His help today knowing this… It’s not what you do for Him that is worthy of His help; it’s what Jesus has done for you.

It never arrives too early. It never arrives too late. Grace is always right on time. God’s unmerited favor for undeserving people like you and me is both customized to fit what we need and calculated to arrive when we need it. Neither the size of the trial nor the strength of the temptation will ever be a match for the well-timed help that God sends in the many moments that are too much for us to handle alone. When you feel like giving in to temptation or giving up in a trial, that’s when you can know for certain that grace is there. In your time of need, God will ensure that you have what you need. Our timing is rarely perfect; His always is.

Every day there is a tug-of-war for control of your thoughts, feelings, motives, attitudes, words and actions, pulling you in the opposing directions of what sin entices you into and what God invites you into. Because of grace, the war is not yours alone to fight! Look to Jesus for help and look for His help to arrive in your time of temptation as a way to leave it, the power to say “no” to it, a divine removal of it, the arrival of someone to help you through it, and / or a promise of something worth waiting for that is better than it. Take heart! You are never helpless against temptation as long as there is a throne of grace for you to run to for help.

When we receive God’s grace, every sin we have committed, are committing and will commit are all forgiven. Fully. Freely. Forever. That doesn’t mean we can knowingly and willfully continue sinning with no remorse or repentance. True grace is not “All is forgiven, now you can freely wallow in sin.” True grace is, “All is forgiven, now you can firmly withstand sin.” Jesus did not pick us up just so we would run back to the same thing that knocked us down. He supplies grace that is both pardon for sin and power not to sin. Therefore… We rely on His grace as we strive for holiness, and we rest in His grace when we need forgiveness.

Because the need for grace is great, and the supply of grace is even greater, we who have experienced it ourselves should extend it to others. We do this by a “show and tell” demonstration of what God has done for us in Christ. We show others the same kind of undeserved forgiveness and favor by letting go of the natural desire to get even with offenders and letting God produce His supernatural desire in us to be a blessing to those in our lives. We tell others about the availability of the grace of God that has changed us and can change them as well. Our everyday testimony for God’s grace is treating others like He treats us.

Grace has two sides, a giving side and a receiving side. God gives. We receive. How do we receive God’s grace? By faith. Faith is the only appropriate response to the grace of God for it is the only response that appropriates the grace of God. We must believe in order to receive. The gracious pardon, power and provision that God freely offers us must be received by faith in order for us to personally experience it. We are included in it when we trust that because of His grace given to us in Christ, our sins are forgiven, and our future is secured. We live by faith in Him and look to Him in faith for everything we need, confident that His grace will deliver it.

Grace is not cruise control. Ours is not a set it and forget it relationship in which God does all the work, and we do none of it. He does all of the things that only He can do and enables us to do all of the things that He purposes for us to do. How do we respond to grace? We. Work. Hard. We work hard to be who God called us to be and do what God has called us to do in Christ, relying on His power and provision every step of the way. Learn this: Grace isn’t opposed to effort; it’s opposed to trying to earn what we’ve been freely given. We don’t work hard to receive God’s grace; we work hard because we have already received it.

Every single good thing about who we are, what we do or what we have is the result of God’s grace. It is all undeserved and unmerited. Yes… We may live wisely. We may be highly motivated. We may work hard. But none of this originates with us because God freely supplied the ability, opportunity, voracity and community to make all these things possible. He’s been working on our behalf our entire lives! This is good news because we do not have the fear, frustration, or futility that comes from depending on ourselves when we depend on Him. Rest in this today: Grace has gotten us this far; grace will get us all the way home.