Grace is God’s gift to you because you are a precious gift to Him. Grace is a smile from God that we didn’t expect, forgiving words from Him that we didn’t earn, and a welcoming hug that we didn’t deserve. Grace doesn’t show up when we’re good or walk away when we’re bad. It doesn’t have a list of demands or a litany of desires. Grace forgives the guilty and covers the unworthy. Grace was standing up for us even when our faces were turned from God.

God lavishes us with His grace not because we deserve it, but because His love determined it. And that is the nature of grace; it is undeserved and unearned.

When we could have languished in our sin, God lavished us with grace instead. “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, emphasis added). Grace gives us a tiny glimpse of “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (3:18) for us. And grace helps us “know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (3:19).

Before God designed mountain ranges, crafted raindrops, and dug His hands deep in the dirt of Eden to form man, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (1:4–5 NLT).

Before God made the decision to create the world, he made another decision: to love you and “bring you to Himself through Jesus.” The grace of Jesus is the bridge that brings you to God and makes a place for you in God’s heart. You are saved by grace, sustained by grace, and satisfied, in the deepest part of your soul, by grace and grace alone. Receive His welcoming hug, His unexpected smile, and let His forgiving words wash over you. He longs to lavish you with His grace, so linger in His presence today and feel His unexplainable favor.