Practical Grace

People are always looking for the practical way of doing things. Working as a guidance counselor for the past fifteen years, I have given others practical strategies on parenting, human behavior, positive thinking, and conflict resolution, to name a few subjects. I have attended numerous conferences on the brain and have developed a curriculum on a positive mind-set for middle school students. For years, psychology has stood on one end of the pendulum and religion on the other.
As a masterful Christian and a professional in the mental health field, I felt called to write a book showing how understanding the brain does not limit your understanding of God but allows you to discern and use in ways you never thought possible the grace He has so freely given you.
Many pastors and preachers have written books about grace from the pulpit perspective. This book will give you practical strategies from the point of view of someone who has learned how to activate grace.
Grace is defined as unmerited favor. You have been given a gift that you did not deserve, and that gift was salvation. Stop a second and think of the last time you got a gift that you knew deep down inside you did not deserve. It was almost impossible to accept it. You tried to give it back and explain all the reasons you did not deserve it. If you kept the gift, you were guilt-ridden. You did not want to enjoy it or to use it. You felt unworthy. You need to understand your mind in order to get rid of the guilt and the shame.
Now magnify that feeling and consider the gift God gave you. He loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die so that you would have life. Wow! The reality is that He died in your place. He took your sins and iniquities and paid the price with His life.
No wonder people have a hard time fathoming this great gift. So many people cannot accept the gift because they feel unworthy. Self-deprecation and judgment keep them from reaping the rewards of the magnificent promises written in the Bible. This is exactly what the Enemy wants. He wants you to believe that you are unworthy and keep you stuck in the negativity. By understanding the way your mind works in relation to your faith, you can activate grace.
What if you could change that old way of thinking? What if you could accept the gift as an inheritance and turn your guilt into gratitude? What if that gratitude gave you power? What if you could accept all the blessings and live in the light? Life would be about love. The free exchange of a priceless commodity would be innate. The purpose of this book is to help you reach that state.
In this book, you will learn practical ways to change your mind-set so that you can first accept this unmerited favor and then incorporate habitual steps into your daily routine that will allow you to activate grace in your life. This book will teach you how to protect your peace of mind. You will discover what is keeping you stuck, and you will learn techniques and gain a new understanding that will once and for all free you from limitations.
Every human being was saved by grace, but not all know it. Among those who know it, not all know how to activate grace. Finally, of those who understand that grace is not automatic, only a select few activate it daily. If you practice the steps in this book, you will be one of those individuals who know how to activate grace. You will be a masterful Christian.
Every person on earth was given salvation. Some have discovered it through faith, and others have found it inadvertently through healthy thinking, but to comprehend it and use it to its fullest potential, you must hear the Word delivered by someone who has the gift of revelation. It is then crucial to read the Word so that your eyes make that visual connection and to let it fill your heart. As Proverbs 4:20–21 says, “My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart.” Finally, you must live the Word, for without application, knowledge is powerless. In sports, it is possible to win a game by a fluke, but a systemic approach is necessary to create a pattern of winning, and all athletes would agree that daily practice and the correct mind-set are what separate the winners from the losers. The same holds true of grace.
If you are playing a new sport or beginning to exercise, you need to be patient with yourself. You will not see changes overnight. As you read this book, give yourself time to incorporate new ideas into your belief system. If you start off doing too much, you are sure to get discouraged or overwhelmed. Pace yourself and take each chapter as a step. Once you have mastered the lessons in one chapter, move on to the next. At the end of each chapter, you will find questions to review. These will help you begin to tap into the grace that has always been available to you.
Imagine yourself as a child wishing for a special toy at Christmas. The anticipation and the butterflies in your stomach keep you up at night. It is finally Christmas morning and you approach the tree with hesitation. You want the toy so much but you are scared it will not be there. You pick up a box and unwrap it as quickly as you can. You scream in elation, “It is really here!” You break open the box and hold the toy. Remember that feeling. Recall the joy of having exactly what you wanted as a child on Christmas morning.
You loved your toy and you played with it all the time. With your imagination, you could do great feats and create fun games. The toy came with instructions, but you were too young to read them, so you relied on others to tell you how your toy operated. Your parents wanted to help, but they could not read the instructions because they were in a foreign language. They took educated guesses as to how your toy worked, and you were content with that. You didn’t care. You loved your toy so much.
You never knew that your toy had a built-in function that would transform it into an electronic device. On one occasion, you accidentally activated this function and your toy seemed to take off by itself. You were amazed but had no idea how this happened. You were excited when you were able to make your toy do incredible stunts, but sometimes you wanted it to do the same stunts and it wouldn’t. You thought this was magic and you were happy knowing that sometimes your toy was magnificent without your help.
Years later you find the manufacturer’s instructions and locate your toy, which has been stored in your room as a keepsake. You stare at it for a moment in amazement. Instructions in hand, you activate the toy and are dumfounded at all it can do. It was better than anything you ever imagined. You sit in awe, and for a moment you wonder, “What would I have done if I knew what my toy could do?”
This is how I felt when I began to read the Word and connect with Jesus in a way I never had before. That Bible lying on my nightstand suddenly had power. I began to understand the meaning of a Christian life. I was introduced to a world of promises and blessings that I had never known. I could not get enough. I was fascinated to learn, and then I had a yearning to share. I wanted others to know of this power that I had found called grace.
Do you have a Bible in your home collecting dust? Do you read the Word daily, but then get caught up in the day and lose your peace? Is your relationship with Jesus filled with limitations that you have created? Do you understand the power of positive thinking but never apply it to the Word? Do you simply yearn to get close to God?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you.