Today we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
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??Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
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1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Additional scriptures for today:
Philippians 1:6 NLT
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
James 1:2-4 TPT
“My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.”
Setting the Stage:
This week, we looked at how grace liberates you, transforms you, sustains you, and empowers you. Today, we’ll explore how grace matures you. In a culture obsessed with instant results and quick fixes, God’s grace introduces something deeper: progressive spiritual maturity that develops over time.
Most of us have been conditioned to focus on external behaviors or immediate changes. We get frustrated when we don’t see instant transformation in ourselves or others. But grace teaches us that true maturity is a journey, not a destination. It’s a process of becoming, not just a moment of change.
This spiritual maturation doesn’t happen overnight. It unfolds gradually as we walk with God, learning from both successes and failures. Paul expresses this beautifully when he writes, “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6). Notice the progression: God begins the work, continues the work, and will one day complete the work. This is the patient, persistent process of grace maturing you from the inside out.
As you embrace THE GRACE LIFE, you’ll begin to notice subtle but significant changes. Your responses to challenges evolve. Your perspective on disappointments shifts. Your approach to planning and decision-making matures. And one day, you’ll wake up and realize just how much grace has matured you — not just changing what you do, but transforming who you are at your core.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Grace Matures Your Response to People.
One of the clearest indicators of spiritual maturity is how we respond to people — especially difficult people. Grace progressively transforms our reactions from reflexive defensiveness or retaliation to reflective patience and understanding. This doesn’t happen overnight, but as grace works in us, we begin to extend to others the same patience and forgiveness God has extended to us. Paul captures this maturation process in Ephesians 4:32 when he tell us to, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” When grace truly matures you, you stop seeing difficult people as obstacles to overcome and start seeing them as souls to love. You recognize that often, the most difficult people are the ones who need grace the most.
How this applies to you:
— You develop the ability to separate people’s actions from their value, addressing behaviors without diminishing worth. You learn to address what they did without attacking who they are.
— Your communication during conflicts becomes more measured and grace-filled, focused on restoration rather than being right.
— You approach challenging relationships with compassion rather than contempt or disdain because you recognize that difficult people are often wounded people. You develop a heart for them.
— You develop the capacity to forgive without keeping score, releasing both yourself and others from the burden of resentment.
— Grace-filled people refuse to keep good records of bad things.
— As you mature in grace, you become known as someone who makes others feel valued and respected, even in disagreement.
— In leadership, you handle disappointments from team members with patience, remembering how God has patiently worked with you.
— In negotiations, you maintain integrity and respect even when others don’t extend the same courtesy.
— You become increasingly aware of your own need for grace, which cultivates genuine humility in how you treat others.
— You respond to criticism with reflection rather than reaction, seeking to understand before being understood.
2. Grace Matures Your Response to Disappointment.
This point is something I have been meditating on lately. Perhaps nowhere is grace’s maturing effect more evident than in how we handle disappointments, setbacks, and failures. Without grace, these experiences can be crushing — derailing us from our destiny. But as grace matures us, we develop what James describes as the ability to “see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy” when facing difficulties (James 1:2). This isn’t about denying pain or practicing toxic positivity. It’s about developing a mature perspective that recognizes God’s sovereignty even in our setbacks. When grace matures you, you understand that a disappointment isn’t necessarily the end of the story — it might just be a comma where you thought there was a period.
How this applies to you:
— You view setbacks as setups for greater growth and development rather than dead-ends.
— You recover from disappointments more quickly because you have learned to align your perspective with God’s, and you have also learned that God’s blessing is not based on your performance. So you don’t have to beat yourself up over and over again.
— In business, you develop resilience that transforms failures into opportunities to learn and make progress. You learn to pivot with purpose instead of quitting in frustration.
— You develop the ability to comfort others through their disappointments from a place of authentic experience, not theory. God has used a lot of what Isabella and I have gone through, especially painful moments, for His glory. He puts us in contact with people who are going through similar situations, and we can minister to them with authenticity.
— Your conversation about past failures changes from shame to testimony as you recognize how grace redeemed even your mistakes.
— You maintain hope during extended delays or detours, trusting that God’s timing is perfect even when it doesn’t match your timeline.
— You develop the spiritual maturity to see God’s hand even in circumstances that don’t make sense from a human perspective.
— Over time, you become less reactive to temporary setbacks because you’ve experienced God’s faithfulness through past disappointments.
— This is all part of growing up in Christ!
3. Grace Matures Your Approach to Planning.
Grace doesn’t just change how we respond to others or handle disappointments; it fundamentally shifts how we approach planning and decision-making. Without grace, planning can become an exercise in self-reliance — attempting to control outcomes through human wisdom and effort. But as grace matures us, we learn what James meant when he wrote, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow… Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that‘” (James 4:13-15).
This isn’t about abandoning planning; it’s about holding plans with open hands. Grace matures us to the point where we can make plans while remaining flexible to God’s direction, knowing that His plans are greater than ours.
How this applies to you:
— You are sure to make strategic plans, but you do so while also remaining open to God and flexible, recognizing that God may redirect your path.
— You create space in your planning for divine interruptions, viewing unexpected changes as potential divine appointments.
— You seek to develop the discernment to distinguish between your selfish desires and God’s will, and you are quick to submit your will to God’s.
— Your definition of success evolves from achievement at any cost to alignment with God’s purposes and character. You grow to the point where you ONLY want what God wants for you!
— You develop the maturity to walk away from “good” opportunities that aren’t God opportunities.
— Your business and personal financial planning reflects a stewardship mindset. If you own a business, you see it as ownership with stewardship responsibilities. You take this same mindset into your personal finances. As a result, financial planning becomes about God and what He wants you to do with the resources He has placed in your hands.
— The more you walk with the Holy Spirit, the more you become increasingly comfortable with uncertainty. You make plans, but since God is always speaking, you are open to shifting anything in your plans that does not line up with what God said. Living this way is exciting because God routinely exceeds our plans!
— As grace matures you, your life plans begin to center more around eternal impact than temporal success. Your life is not just about the accumulation of things anymore. Your focus is on making the impact God sent you to this planet to make!
— WARNING! Opening your heart to God’s grace may change what you thought you were going to be doing in your retirement years!
4. Grace Matures Your Character.
Grace matures us in the development of our character. This type of change is not imperceptible in the moment, but you realize it over time. You are being transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. It’s what Paul refers to in Galatians 5:22-23 when he describes the fruit of the Spirit — “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” These character qualities aren’t produced through human effort or religious performance. They’re the natural outgrowth of grace working in our lives over time. One day, after walking with God for years, you’ll look back and realize with amazement how much you’ve changed — not because you tried harder, but because grace has been silently, steadily maturing your character all along.
How this applies to you:
— You begin to notice that your knee-jerk responses to challenging situations have fundamentally changed over time.
— In leadership, you find yourself naturally modeling the fruit of the Spirit without having to consciously think about it.
— Your internal thought life becomes increasingly aligned with God’s perspective. In other words, you struggle less to think like God becuase your mind has been renewed.
— You develop integrity that maintains consistent character whether someone is watching or not.
— The gap between who you are in public and who you are in private steadily narrows as grace matures your authentic character.
— You become increasingly aware of subtle character flaws that once went unnoticed, not because you’re worse but because you’re more sensitive to the Spirit’s refining work.
— Your dependence on external validation decreases as your identity becomes more securely rooted in God’s view of you. You can grow to the point where you genuinely don’t care what most people think.
— Over time, you realize that the person you’ve become through grace is someone you never could have become through self-improvement alone. God loves you so much that He is committed to helping you change into the person He destined you to be!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for the maturing work of Your amazing grace in my life.
I declare that Your grace is transforming how I respond to people, even difficult ones.
Your grace gives me a new perspective on disappointments, seeing them as opportunities for growth.
I submit my plans to Your superior wisdom, holding my plans with open hands.
Your grace is steadily transforming my character into the image of Christ.
Where I once reacted in the flesh, I now respond in the Spirit.
My life is a testimony to Your patient, persistent work of transformation.
Living this way, I experience THE GRACE LIFE in 2025 and beyond, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
