Everyday Grace: Faith

Last week we talked about Grace.  I shared with you a challenge Elder Gene R. Cook gave to go through your scriptures and substitute "enabling power" for "grace" everytime the word appears.  Elder Cook promises us that,

"You will then understand some doctrines about grace which you have never understood before."

Try it.  It really does help you understand alot about grace that you probably hadn't understood prior. 

This week I wanted to talk about Everyday Grace. You know, how we can access and use the grace of God daily in our lives.

Elder Cook states,

"...we must realize that this great concept of the enabling power of Jesus Christ is what gets us through our everyday problems...It's how the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father are involved with us on a daily basis.  This grace can see us through our problems if we can tap the power."

In the same talk by Elder Cook, he lists several ways in which we can access grace every day.  The ways that he suggests are:

Access Grace....

...Through Faith

...by Doing All in Your Part

...Through Repentance and Good Works

...Through Keeping the Commandments

...Access Grace through Humility

I want to dive into each of them a bit, and it may take a few posts to do it...but we'll get there!

Ok, first, Accesing Grace Through Faith

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherin we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."  

Romans 5:1-2

 In my opinion, faith is the greatest power on the earth and throughout the eternities.  Hebrews 11 tells us all that faith has accomplished, including framing the worlds (vs. 3), Enoch translated (vs. 5), seas parted (vs. 29), and city walls destroyed (vs. 30). 

If faith can do such amazing things, is it that hard to believe that by faith we can access grace in our daily lives? 

Paul, in his epistle to the Church in Ephesus stated,

 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

Ephesians 2:8

 Like Paul says, we're saved by grace through faith.  So while we are saved by Christ's enabling power, we still must offer what we can, and that is our faith.  We are asked to give our all, and when our all has been expended, Christ picks us up and carries us the rest of the way. 

In our daily lives how does this happen? 

How about when you are doing all you can to get all you need to get done and it just doesnt seem like you'll be able to do it.  And then somehow you find some extra time, or one task takes less time than you expected.  Is this not grace?  After you have put all you could into your tasks, you had faith and the Lord made the difference.

Or when you've done all you can to raise, teach, encourage a child and that child decides, still, to make poor decisions.  But you exercise faith and sooner or later that child comes to their senses, straightens up and gets back on track.  Did you not do all you could?  Did you not encourage and counsel, pray and plead, love and exercise patience?  And the grace of Christ made the difference. 

Another important point about accessing grace through faith is remember that faith and doubt cannot co-exist.  So for us to use faith to access grace, we must do all we can to eliminate the doubts that frequently enter our minds when we are stressed or worried. 

My friend, Chris LoCurto tweeted an awesome quote about faith today,

 "Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible."

 What this means to me is that if we are in a situation where faith is necessary (and that is pretty much all the time...) doubt probably wont be too far behind trying to sneak into our minds...so be proactive in having faith, and therefore, experiencing grace more fully in your life!

I want to end with another quote from Elder Cook (I know, I'm quoting him a lot...its a GREAT talk!),

"Thus it doesn't matter whether you're in the first hour or the eleventh hour according to Jesus' parable.  The requirement is to put in all you can.  Wherever you are in your station in life, the Lord will put in the rest.  The grace of the Father and the Son truly is sufficient to cover us all. 

How have you seen that you have found access to grace through your faith? 

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Justified by faith

Grace is one of those topics that is often discussed and argued about.  And I find it humorous that the Apostle Paul is called upon to justify any and all sides of the issue.  Jeff Lindsay over at Mormanity had a great post that talks about Paul's views on Grace that I'd definitely recommend you take a look at.  He makes some great points about what Paul taught...and does so in a really funny way! 

Whenever I think of Grace, I think of one of my favorite talks that I've ever read.  It's a training given by Elder Gene R. Cook titled "Teaching by the Spirit and Learning How to Receive Blessings From the Lord".  In this talk, given at a CES Seminary and Institute Meeting on June 30, 1989, Elder Cook talks about grace.  Elder Cook then says,

"The best definition I know of for the word 'grace' is 'enabling power.' If you look in your Bible Dictionary you will find those terms there.  It's a great definition.  If you have not taken the time, look up every verse you can find that mentions 'grace' and put 'enabling power' in its place.  you will then understand some doctrines about grace which you have never understood before. It is a great concept."

I have taken Elder Cook's advice, and this activity of putting "enabling power" in the place of "grace" truly does open your eyes to a meaning of grace that is otherwise easy to overlook.  I echo Elder Cook's recommendation, try it, you'll be glad you did!

Let me share a couple scriptures that describe to me how I think of grace. 

In Alma 42, Alma is talking to his son Corianton and explaining mercy and justice when he says,

"...whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come..." verse 27

And in 3 Nephi 10 The Lord is bemoaning the fact the the people had chosen to not come unto him,

"...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not." verse 5

These scriptures describe kind of how I think grace works.  GRACE IS ABSOLUTELY FREE.  If it wasnt free, "...grace is no more grace..." (Romans 11:6).  I'm sure many of my non-member friends expect that I will argue with them on this point.  I will not.  Grace is free, there is absolutely no way we can "earn" grace. 

Elder Cook puts it this way,

"Let's assume for just a moment that one of you puts in some but not all that is required and sitll obtains [a] blessing. My question is this, who put in the balance? Someone had to.  The Lord Jesus Christ did, didn't He? Jesus put it in for him and that's why the man got the blessing.  In other words, none of us have received one blessing, ever, in our whole lives, in which the Lord Jesus Christ did not pay part of the requirement." (emphasis added).

That being said, I believe we do have to do some things in order to make grace effective in our lives.  Hence these scriptures.  "whosoever will come may come...whosoever will not...is not compelled..."  God is not going to force us to partake of His grace.  He offers it freely, and it is our responsibility to accept it. 

Its like when someone comes up to you with a plate of cookies.  All he can do is hold out the plate and say "would you like a cookie?" It then becomes your responsibility to reach out, grab a cookie, and eat it.  Until you do your part, you will not enjoy the great tasting cookie. 

Just becase you had to put forth effort does not mean that the cookies are not free! 

Likewise, just because we must put forth effort to access the grace of God does not mean that it is somehow not free or that we are "earning" grace. 

This is what, I believe, Nephi was saying when he said,

"...we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" 2 Nephi 25:23 (emphasis added)

That brings us back to the idea of grace as an "enabling power".  Grace is what makes up what we lack, and we all lack!  We all need grace! 

Next week I want to talk a little more about how we can access grace in our day to day lives. 

Until that time, I would strongly encourage each of you to take Elder Cook's challenge, go through your scriptures and write the words "enabling power" in the margin next to every reference to grace, then read the verse, substituting the words "enabling power" for "grace" in the verse.  Does this change how you view grace?



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Photo courtesy of Rachel Ford James, Some Rights Reserved