The Bible is full of terrific stories and verses of grace. The entire story is about how Jesus, the one who did no wrong, died on the cross to save us all from our sins. Jesus is the best teacher when it comes to the habits of grace. We were made to be perfect, but sin separated us from God, and Jesus bridged that gap for those who believe. The Bible is a massive story of grace. To have the gift of eternal life when you are 100% undeserving of it is something special. The response should be to choose your habits carefully and make sure they line up with his word.
The best way to show the love of God is to love other people. The idea is not to make fun of them, look down on them, or tell them what to believe. The first thing we must do is LOVE others.
The Habits of Grace
Be Like Jesus and Choose Your Habit Carefully
You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
-1 Corinthians 11:1
The best way to live a life full of grace is to know the story of Jesus. Even if you are not a Christian, it's worth reading his story and seeing how he lived his life. Jesus is different from the rest of the world because he lived a life without error. He was flesh and blood like us and faced temptation like us but not once did he fall.
Jesus got beaten and was unjustly and hung on the cross to die. Death was the punishment since others could not believe he said he was the Son of God. Even as Jesus was dying, he said: "Forgive them for they know not what they do!" He had grace for even those who were killing them. He felt terrible for them because they were ignorant of the situation at hand. The story of Jesus is full of habits of grace.
Boast in Your Weaknesses
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
- 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
Boasting in your weaknesses is not what Instagram or modern culture is all about. We do the opposite! We spend all our time telling the world about how strong and impressive we are.
The Bible is often counter-cultural. The words are not looking to fit in, and this is a great example. The grace of God is all we need to sustain ourselves. Boasting in our weaknesses is a habit of Grace because it points to where our Grace comes from.
Love Others
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.
Ephesians 2:4-5
The Gospel is a story of undeserving love. God took a people who were broken filthy sinners and sent one to save us all. For he who believes in this one will have eternal life. That is love to the greatest extent because God sent his son for us.
The best way to show the love of God is to love other people. The idea is not to make fun of them, look down on them, or tell them what to believe. The first thing we must do is LOVE others.
It's by the way we love other people that people want to know what makes you different. Sustaining the habits of grace can only be done through the power of Jesus.
Forgive Others
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
- Matthew 6:14
The story of Jesus came with a whole lot of forgiveness. People wronged Jesus all the time, to the point of death. He still found forgiveness in his heart every time. No matter how hard it is to do, we must do the same.
We can't expect to have our wrongdoings forgiven by others and by God, but when others wrong us, we try to hold tight to it. We must let all the grudges go. Forgiving others is the best thing we can do to be like Jesus and heal our hearts.
Remember That You Have Grace and Peace
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
- 2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace go hand in hand. When we are dependent on the strength of Jesus, our gift is grace and harmony. We are given is an inner peace that really can't be sustained any other way. Our anxieties all can be thrown on the back of Jesus. He died for them all!
The act of remembering that you have grace and peace is one of the habits of grace because of how easy it is to forget. When you let go of these two things, you begin to carry a lot of things through life that you don't have to anymore. The worries, sin, and shame can all be thrown on Jesus because we are made new in him.
The Habits of Grace Lead to Suffering
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
-1 Peter 5:10
The ugly part of the gospel is that we are going to suffer. Some don't believe it because they can't understand how good people suffer. The story of Jesus is the reason why. He was perfect, and he was accused and killed for nothing.
The habits of grace will always call us to suffer. There is not much we can do to bring suffering to us besides rejoicing when it reaches our doorstep. Again, this is counter-cultural because society wants us to be pissed when we suffer. It wants us to blame others and scream, "why me?"
Rejoicing in the suffering means that you have your character and your hope built hope. The righteous live by faith and faith alone.
The Root of The Habits of Grace
If you want to understand how to be like Jesus and do everything listed above, you need to be in the word. One of the most popular habits tracked in Habit Stacker is daily devotion time. A lot of people want the first thing they do each day to be a time in The Word of God.
Habit Stacker will help you do that by reminding you when you have not done it each day. It also allows you to choose an accountability partner, so you have more skin in the game. If you decide not to do it each day, they will be notified each time. The habit tracker will help you to choose your habits carefully and keep them going.