Grace Stories

By Doug Franklin November 16, 2011

Recently in my small group from church we were talking about grace stories. You know, the stories we’ve all lived in which God showed up in our lives and offered grace to us even though it was undeserved. We took time to actually go around the circle and share with each other how God has shown up in our lives and brought us into a relationship with him. As I sat there I realized just how rare it is, even amongst Christians, for us to share with each other the story of how we have come to know Christ and have seen his grace in our lives. It was a great night of openness and honesty. Our pastor on Sunday morning had challenged all of us to be more open to sharing our grace stories with others, and said that consistently, three things needed to continually be present if we were going to share:

1. Courage: Anytime we tell others about how we have come to know Christ, whether it is with Christians or especially non-Christians, it takes courage to reach past the fear and open with others. Yet when we are courageous, God shows up.

2. Passion: God has done amazing things in our lives and saved us from a life without him. Our passion for his love needs to be present when we share our grace stories, otherwise they seem contrived or untrue.

3. Preparation: Basically we need to be intentional with what we say and who we say it to. I’m sure when Paul stood up in Acts 21 and 22 and shared his faith with the hostile crowd, he has thought about what he would say ahead of time if he were ever in a situation like that. It’s not that we have to have a speech planned out; it’s that we give thought and consideration, and prayer, to what we say when we share our faith.

Grace stories. We all have them. Are we sharing them?