2 Corinthians 3:18 – And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed intho his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

What does it mean to be transformed by God’s grace? What does it mean to have God’s grace in our lives? Why is this concept so important? First of all we need to define what grace means and what transforming means before we are able to understand what the transforming grace of God means for us.

The biblical meaning of grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely, the peace of God given to the restless and the unmerited favour of God. It basically means that God loves us regardless of what we do. God doesn’t love us for doing. God loves us for being. He doesn’t want us to do but to be. Grace is unconditional. It is not set upon conditions. You must do this in order to obtain God’s love. No! – That is not God’s grace. God loves you for who you are. Even when we make mistakes God still loves us. Yes, He will rebuke us when we do wrong but He will show you the right way if you are willing to accept His unconditional love for you. If you are willing to take that step of faith in putting your absolute trust in Him. According to the Oxford dictionary grace means bringing honour or credit to someone or something by one’s attendance or participation. It also means courteous good will, smoothness and elegance of movement. Transforming means making a marked change.

When we fully understand God’s transforming grace, it means that God is changing us from old to new. We are putting the old behind and embracing the new. When we begin to understand God’s unconditional love for us, and realise that we don’t have to perform to be accepted, this revelation can help us to change. Grace teaches us to think of others, to love others like God loves them. It helps us to get through a thousand bad days. Grace helps us to love others and helps us see them through God’s eyes. I don’t always find it easy to love others or to see them through God’s eyes. But I will pray something like this:

Dear Father God, help me to love like you do, help me to see this person as you do. Help me to extend grace. More grace please Lord.

How I wish I could say that I’ve got it all sussed out. But I don’t. I have to constantly plug into the Lord’s love. I have to constantly look up to Him for guidance. I have to ask myself would Jesus do this? I cannot expect people to extend grace to myself if I do not extend grace to themselves. I cannot expect God to extend grace to me if I cannot extend grace to others. We are all with imperfections. This is what makes the world such a beautiful place as God slowly transforms the imperfections into His perfections. We will always be imperfect in His eyes but the beauty is that He will love us, and help us through everything that life throws at us. He will love us even when we get it wrong. God will help us pick up the broken puzzle pieces and put them together again.

God’s grace is sufficient for me. Is God’s grace sufficient for you? How do you extend grace to others? Is it hard for you to extend grace? For me it is sometimes unimaginably difficult to extend grace. I am learning. I am a work in progress. I am learning to let go of the hurt and to allow God to minister to me. I am learning not to get worked up by other people’s actions and instead look at them through the eyes of God therefore enabling me to extend grace to them.

Be patient with yourself as you learn to extend grace to others. I challenge you to allow God to transform you by His grace and in doing so teaching you how to extend grace to others. Do not be afraid of this. Have courage to extend grace. Grace is one of the best gifts in this broken world that we live in. Learn to plug into the Father’s love.

May you be blessed.