agents of grace

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Anyone who receives you receives me,
and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. [Matthew 10:40 NLT]

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I wonder what Jesus saw on his disciples faces as he spoke to them?
How did they respond to his words about being persecuted and rejected?
What did they think about this mission that he was sending them on?

Perhaps he was, in this verse, assuring them that they were being sent out as ambassadors?
And that their kingdom mission was not only prophetic but helpful for those they touched.
Good words to think of when we remember that we are ambassadors of divine grace.

The Greek word for grace is χάρις or charis and for grace-gift it is xárisma or charisma.
In the scriptures grace is often portrayed as God working through his children.
I think that this is the normal way that the Lord dispenses grace into the world.

For sure there is an all encompassing grace that is directly bestowed in salvation.
Yet even in salvation, one normally hears of grace through a person's grace-gift.
Paul writes to the Romans of salvation coming through the grace-gift of preaching.

When I consider the word grace, I am more and more convinced of it's practicality.
When grace is needed, it normally comes through God working through a person.
It makes sense when one considers that spiritual gifts are given to be used to help others.

Consider the grace-gifts that Paul writes of in the twelfth chapter of Romans.
When I hear of the gift of healing I think of one person being used to heal another.
He writes of how a grace-gift can bring about the miraculous intervention of God.

Grace is something that we receive so that we can give it away.
The world, people, need the manifestation of grace and grace-gifts.
Our mission should be to be agents of divine grace to a lost and hurting world.

Thank you for grace Lord. Help me to be used as an instrument of your grace today.

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... this devotion is part of the Red Letters series. Click here to read more.