Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV): For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.
Blanchard, Hodges and Hendry share a gripping GRACE story in “Lead Like Jesus.” Here it is:
Our friend Tom told us an incredible story of grace. Early in his marriage, his wife caught him with another woman – literally. When she did, she walked up to him and said, “We will talk about this later.” He rushed home to see if she would talk then, but she told him she would need time. It was Tuesday, and she said she would be ready to talk on Friday. Tom described those next days as torture. He knew that he had lost his wife and his two small children, that there was no way his wife would allow him to stay in their lives.
On Friday she told Tom she was ready to talk. Tom described the scene to us; he sat across from his wife, and she looked directly at his eyes. She said, “I’ve made a decision. I have decided that I will be the best wife you could ever have. I will be the best mother you could ever want for your children, and I will be the best lover you could ever imagine. Now you can decide what you are going to do.”
Tom said he fell to his knees in front of his wife and sobbed. He had heard about grace his entire life, but he had never experienced it. In fact, his wife’s incredible act of grace was the first time he TRULY understood God’s grace. Tom told us he spent the next forty years trying to be the husband he wanted to be to his wife, and she spent the next forty years keeping the promises she made that day.
Grace is love in action after people mess up. Grace extends fellowship to others. God reached out to you in grace to restore your intimate relationship with Him. During his season of leadership on this earth, Jesus constantly reached out in grace to heal people and restore relationships.
Men – does someone in your family or workplace need grace? Specifically … does someone need the chance to restore his or her relationship with you? Be an agent of grace.
