grace, and our part in it

on my mind today has been understanding grace more fully. i'm trying to solidify my theology, and currently it is the theology on grace. not sure if i will ever fully understand grace, though i want to. i think grace plays one of the most important parts in our lives. after all, God, through paul, in ephesians 2 tells us that we are saved by grace, and this is through faith. it is not by works, so that no one can say 'i am better than you', because we have all sinned and fall short of God. (romans 3.23). us being saved is a gift from God. this gift, as are other gifts, is grace.

it's the fact we are undeserving of anything good. we are, by nature, children of wrath. we were once God's enemies. i know people don't like to hear that, but the reality is that is true. our default position is bad. and i am trying to wrap my mind around how bad we really were (or still are, if we haven't yet come to faith in Christ). i can not see my/our response to seeing how bad we were compared to how blessed we are now that we are in Jesus as being anything less than praise and worship. for we were once dead, now we are alive. once enemies, now friends. once damned, now loved fully and incomprehensibly.

i'm hoping to develop my view on grace so i may see so much more of my life (maybe all of it?) is grace. for example, as i am praying for a certain job that i want to see God use me in, or even praying for a wife, understanding that it is grace, as those are both gifts. and not only do i see these as grace, i thank God for this grace.

the flip side of that, maybe, is understanding my role in all of this. how do i still pursue a job, a woman, whatever it may be (these are two easy examples), and to what extent do i pursue, and to what extent do i surrender? it is as it was when i came to faith -- it is more about surrender, and surrendering to God, and trusting. "for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith..."

can we substitute "been given this job, been given this wife (husband for the ladies reading this)" for "been saved", so it becomes "for it is by grace you have been given this job, through faith, not by works so that no one can boast, rather it is a gift of God"? is that theologically accurate? "for it is by grace you have been given this woman, through faith, not by works so that you can not boast; rather, she is a gift of God..." that's what i'm praying through/trying to understand right now.

something else i'm reading...a lot of times, in his letters, it seems like paul says something to the effect of 'grace and peace be with you', or 'may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace'...what does that mean? it seems he is expressing a desire for his brethren to be blessed, which sounds like the result of grace. i think the result of grace is always blessing. we are never worse off than we were before grace occurred; we are always changed for the better. right?

so anyway, this is what i'm thinking about right now. hopefully i'll write more later, b/c i gotta jet in a bit. thanksgiving dinner with the roomies in a bit. later, folks...