Fred Smith, the noted evangelical, once observed: “Grace was genuine, real, personal, and palpable to the great saints. Brother Lawrence, Frank Laubach, Francois Fenelon–these Christians mystics never doubted they were the constant recipients of God’s amazing grace. Grace was a practical part of their everyday lives.”

As Christians, the word “grace” is a common part of our vernacular. We sing about. We speak about it. We pray about it. Because of its prominence, it’s easy for the term to almost become throwaway. In fact, the word “grace” appears 170 times in Scripture. For example:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

It even appears in the very last verse of the Bible, Revelation 22:21: “The grace of the Lord Jesus bee with God’s people. Amen.”

Obviously, grace is important. It is foundational, even, to the Christian belief. But is it foundational to our behavior? Do we, like the faith heroes of above, actually make it a “practical” part of our lives?

So many Christians walk around, claiming grace but still living in guilt, shame, and self-condemnation. We understand in our heads that Jesus’s death brought about salvation through grace, yet it’s a whole other matter for that truth to lodge itself into our hearts. We are free…and still we willingly carry around the shackles He lovingly broke open.

And I get it. I totally do. When I first accepted Christ, it was so much easier to receive His grace. I began to struggle, however, when becoming born again didn’t magically erase my capacity for sin. I was a “new creation,” “saved by faith”…and yet I still continued to stumble. I sinned. I knew right and chose wrong. I acted in blatant disobedience. I sinned some more. And, recognizing the sinful nature that was still at war within me despite my newfound commitment to follow Christ, it became a lot harder to accept the gift of grace.

I found inspiration in Brother Lawrence. Although mighty in faith, he was by no means perfect. But, rather than dwelling on his mistakes, he humbly confessed them and moved on, trusting that God’s grace was enough. This wasn’t a flippant move by any means, undermining the seriousness of sin; c0nfession was a somber exercise, one in which his desire for repentance was genuine. But this exercise, while accepting the graveness of sin, also elevated the status of God’s grace. His grace exists precisely because we are sinners; we will fail. Grace is the gift He gives to let us know He still loves us anyway.

Steve Brown, a celebrated Christian author and professor, puts it this way: “Grace is doing good for someone when there is no compelling reason to do so and every reason not to.”

That’s the type of grace God gives us. Sin can and should make us feel ashamed. But, that shame should led us to repentance, to the feet of God, where grace abounds. And that grace, if we allow it, is big enough to remove the condemnation we feel and let us move forward.

To live the lives God intended us to live.

Free.

And full of grace.

“We feel we deserve judgement rather than grace,” Smith says. “Grace brings freedom. Grace cannot be deserved. If we accept grace fully then we, like Brother Lawrence, have the freedom to admit failure and move on.”

So let’s not just speak grace, friends. Let’s live it.

Truly. Practically.

Freely.