Unmerited Favor

As I have written before, I am always searching for patience in hopes of being a better mother and all around more passionate follower of Jesus.  As I was reading a devotional by Oswald Chambers it suddenly hit me, patience is really nothing more than extending grace towards others.  The kind of grace that God renews everyday.  That is completely simplifying it, but sometimes all I need to do is give a little unmerited favor. 

Grace is defined in many ways, but the one that hit me most was a "temporary exemption" or reprieve(delayed punishment, or to give relief or deliverance for a time).  Oswald Chambers writes "It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you; it is taking the grace of God now.  We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible.  Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God"  I'm not sure why I never stopped to think about it, but if God is continually extending grace towards me, why am I so shy about extending it towards others, my kids in particular.

Do any of us really deserve anything we have, do we deserve any reaction that we receive from our Heavenly Father?  The Lord has bestowed everything on us and relates to us solely by grace.  Our very breath continues because He forgives us, loves us past the ends of time, and has delayed and even completely paid for our punishment himself.  We have received the ultimate deliverance for all times.  I want to not only pray that the Lord will help me to be more patience in each circumstance that is right in front of me, but I want to be able to act out in the grace that He has already shown me and gives freely to me everyday.


2 Corinthians 6:1-10 
¹ And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— ² for He says,
   “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,
AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.”
   Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”— ³ giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, ⁴ but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, ⁵ in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, ⁶ in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, ⁷ in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, ⁸ by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; ⁹ as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, ¹⁰ as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.