Our God is Gracious

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Ephesians 2:8

We are currently in a short series on studying Exodus 34:6 and the character of God revealed through this Scripture: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

For more in depth guidance, we encourage you to check out the Bible Project’s series on the Character of God that also focuses on Exodus 34.

Also, if you missed any of the previous weeks in the series, you can find them here: week one & week two.

This week we focus in on the gracious nature of God and how we can receive His grace, then offer the same kind of grace to those around us.

Devotion: Our God is Gracious

Gather your family and read Exodus 34:6. Highlight the word gracious to your children as the part of God that we are going to focus on today. Gracious can be a hard word to explain, it’s often easier to explore what character looks or feels like in order to understand it, so let’s go to the Bible to help us know what it means to be gracious.

Before we do anything else, let’s talk about gifts. What has been one of your favorite gifts? Do you remember who gave it to you or where it came from? And, did you have to pay for your gift? That’s right, it was free. Why do you think that person gave you such a wonderful gift? Yep, gifts are given as a way to show love and delight in someone. What are things or people that you delight in? (let your children think and discuss for a bit).

Do you know who is the original gift-giver? Yes, God! It says in James 1:17 that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” What kind of gifts do you think God gives us?

One special gift God gives us is called grace. Grace is getting kindness and love when we haven’t done anything to deserve it. In fact, sometimes grace gives us something good even when we have done something wrong or sinful. Jesus lived a life full of grace, so He is a great example of grace. There are many stories when Jesus healed people, forgave them, ate dinner with them and loved them. Why did Jesus do this? Yes, because He loved each of those people and those were ways that He could show His love.

So, what does this mean for us? Well, first, like with any gift, you have to receive it. Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God,” Let’s take that gift: open your hands with me and think of God’s love and delight in you and imagine it as a gift, dropping right into your hands. Now, close your hands around it gently and make it yours. Now, how do you feel knowing that God loves and delights in you?

One of the best ways to remember and receive God’s grace over and over is to think about it when we make mistakes or feel like we have done something wrong. It’s important to know that God always loves us, even when we feel bad about ourselves or something we’ve done. Being loved by God is something we can be thankful for, let’s take a minute to thank Him now and enjoy the truth of that love. End with a short prayer, thanking God for His love and grace.