The Gift of Grace

I taught Relief Society as a sub last Sunday and I was asked to review Elder Uchtdorf's talk, "The Gift of Grace". As I prepared I realized that I don't really use the word grace regularly. It seems like all the other Christian churches talk about grace and we like to talk about obedience. As I have listened to our church leaders recently I realized that they actually talk quite a bit about grace, what it is and what is required to access it.

I realized as I was preparing the lesson, that just as Jesus grew from grace to grace, we also need to grow from grace to grace. Many just think about grace as washing away our sins but it does so much more than that. It perfects, exalts and blesses our lives

There are a few things required of us before we can access grace. We need to give our total effort and have a broken heart. Without those two things grace can be difficult to access. Why would God send us his greatest blessings if we didn't even show we wanted them? How would we grow if God didn't stretch us to do more than we've done in the past?

Sometimes the windows of heaven are opened and blessings come because we have been prepared to receive them and God knows we need them. It is one thing to pray and say please give me this certain thing and another to say, I have done everything I know to do and then plead to the Lord to grant us certain blessings. There are no guarantees and sometimes we just need to accept God's will and trust in his timing.

I think that one of my favorite parts of grace is that it can be used to heal those who we have hurt knowingly or unknowingly. It changes us in ways that we didn't know or believe possible. The hardest part has to be letting go of what we want and turning our will over to God so he can heal our lives.

It is difficult to define grace and to especially put it all into one sentence but in my mind it is a manifestation of the love and mercy of God. It is a power that enables, guides, heals, perfects and leads us back to God. It is the difference between what we are capable of accomplishing on our own and perfection.