Extra Grace Required

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

My name is Xochitl Dixon. Today, I'm sharing a personal story in Extra Grace Required. While we decorated for a special event at church, the woman in charge griped about my inexperience. After she walked away, another woman approached me. Don't worry about her. She's what we call an EGR, Extra Grace Required.

I laughed. Soon, I started using that label every time I had a conflict with someone. Years later, I sat in that same church sanctuary listening to that EGR's obituary. The pastor shared how she had served God behind the scenes and given generously to others.

I asked God to forgive me for judging and gossiping about her and anyone else I'd labeled as an EGR in the past. After all, I needed extra grace as much as any other believer in Jesus. In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul states that all believers were by nature deserving of wrath, but God gave us the gift of salvation, a gift which we did nothing to deserve, a gift we'd never be able to earn so that no one can boast, no one. As we submit to God moment by moment during this lifelong journey, the Holy Spirit will work to change our character so we can reflect the character of Christ. Every believer requires extra grace, but we can be grateful that God's grace is sufficient.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 10. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath, but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Let's pray. Father God, please forgive us for the times we've judged others. Help us extend grace to others as freely and generously as you've lavished us with your abounding grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. These encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.