Where There is no Grace

When there is no "...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control"  (Galatians 5:22-23), there is no grace.  Grace is not an end result, but a product of a heart being transformed from within by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot wake up one day and declare that grace will flow out of our life.  We may fabricate a mediocre substitute, but it will never be the real thing.  The real thing will always have the imprint of the hands of the Holy Creator.    

Grace comes from God as a gift for our living.  Those whose lives are being made new by the fruit of the Spirit are not only creating a kinder, more gentle, compassionate, and more understanding world around them, but they are also becoming a human vessel transmitting grace to others.  As we are given grace, so does our faithfulness to God mean the offering of grace to one another.     

I remember a moment many years ago which still shames me to remember.  I thought of myself as a loving person, but in the heat of a disagreement over an issue facing the church, I set out to verbally undermine the value of another person and what he was saying.  It was not a moment filled with much grace on my part.  Grace does not flow from our heart when we give lip service to love.  It only flows naturally when the Holy Spirit is given freedom to work His miracles within us.