Are you always trying to prove yourself against others?
1) God is great … so we do not have to be in control
2) God is Glorious … so we do not need to fear anyone or anything
3) God is Good … so we do not need to look elsewhere for satisfaction and purpose in life
God is gracious
What the Bible says
Graciousness = someone treats you in a way that is far better than you deserve.
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness Exodus 34:6
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18
But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.
‘‘Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. Nehemiah 9:16-21
So how is the fact that God is Gracious a liberating truth to know?
How this affects us as a church ….
We are 100% equal in the eyes of God
But if I forget the graciousness of God …
If I am firmly rooted in the graciousness of God…