Grace Poured Out

An Acrostic for Extending God's Grace

By T. Windahl

Grace—amazing, beautiful, and immeasurable grace—is a gift from God’s hand poured out on us, His children. And as recipients of this grace, we are to extend grace to those around us.

As I pondered God’s grace and sought to be a vessel of it, I thought an acrostic using the word GRACE might be helpful to remember and to encourage us along the way.

G — GLORIFY God

When I think about pouring out grace on those around me, I believe the best starting point from which grace will freely flow is to glorify God. We can live in a way that brings God glory through our words and actions. According to Scripture, we were created to give God glory (Isa. 43:7), and we are to give God glory in everything we do (1 Cor. 10:31).

I still remember a time when I was tempted to share something with a friend—something negative about someone who had deeply wounded me. With those negative thoughts swirling on my mind, I sensed the Holy Spirit reminding me that I was created to give God glory. If I shared those negative thoughts, I would not bring glory to God. Remembering that truth helped me to keep those negative thoughts to myself.

As we seek to be vessels of God’s grace, how else can we bring glory to God? The Bible tells us that by praising Him (Ps. 50:23a) and by reflecting His character—by loving others or by being merciful, patient, compassionate, or forgiving—we glorify God. We can also bring God glory by obeying Him, trusting Him, and sharing what He has done for us.

As we seek to give grace to those around us, may we remember this starting point: to glorify God.