15/11/2025
January 19 (From the Book "New Morning Mercies" by Paul David Tripp)
If you look honestly at God’s Word and see that you need grace, why would you be impatient with others who need grace too?
One of the biggest problems we have in our relationships is that we forget. I wish I could say this is not my problem, but it is. It is so easy to forget how much you need grace, and it is also easy to forget how much grace God has already given you. When you forget the grace you have received, it becomes very easy to treat others without grace.
It is clear that real grace for others does not come from duty. Imagine that I sit next to my wife, Luella, and say:
“Luella, I have realized that it is my duty to be gracious to you. So I will give you grace, not because I want to, but because I have to.”
Do you think she would feel encouraged? Of course not. A joyful life of giving grace grows from a heart full of thankfulness.
When I really think about who I am, and when I think about the grace I never earned but God gave to me anyway, and when I remember that this grace came through the death of Jesus, then I become happy to give grace to others.
For Christians, being harsh, critical, impatient, or irritated usually happens when we forget or deny who we are and what we have been given in Jesus. No one gives grace better than someone who knows he needs grace himself and understands the grace he has received.
We forget so fast. We sometimes think we deserve more than we do. We sometimes think we are more righteous or more capable than we really are. That is why we must give grace in the very moment God calls us to do it. God is using us as instruments to show His grace to others.
1 John 4:19 is really true: “We love because He first loved us.” That is something worth remembering.
