How to Experience the Inspiration of Grace

Like many kids, I grew up viewing my parents mainly through a self-centered lens, focusing on what they could do for me rather than who they were. Then, in college, my mom entrusted me with a large sum of money to save for essential expenses, a testament to their hard work and sacrifice. Unfortunately, in my immaturity, I spent it on things I didn’t need. 

When my mom later asked about the money, I had to admit it was gone. Her disappointment revealed my betrayal of her trust, filling me with guilt and a desire to repay her.

Despite this, she forgave me, told me I didn’t have to pay her back, and encouraged me to use whatever money I earned to start again. This is grace—undeserved favor that helps us become who we are meant to be. 

Grace changed my view of my mom and inspired me to change my ways. It also helped me realize how motivating grace really is.

“But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, [5] united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace. [8-9] For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. [10] For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.”

Ephesians 2:4-5,8-10 Voice

A relationship with God, made possible by his grace, is not something we earn—it is a free gift, given without any conditions. It’s not dependent on our effort. Once we acknowledge and accept this free gift, grace then inspires and motivates us into action.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. [12] It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, [13] while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14 NIV

In my relationship with God, I often get the steps out of order. I tend to skip the grace step and jump straight to action. I think that if I just work harder, behave better, or check off a list of “good deeds,”  then I will get God’s approval. But Titus 2 tells us the opposite. Grace means we already have God’s approval before we could do anything to deserve it. Once we believe and accept that, we will change our lives to be self-controlled, upright, and godly. If we skip the grace step and just try to control and fix our behaviors, we will feel exhausted, discouraged, and embittered. 

If we have been struggling with stagnation in our relationship with God, feeling more exhausted than energized to grow, or finding ourselves just going through the motions instead of actively pursuing a meaningful relationship with God, this devotional will help us embrace the power of grace. It will inspire us to live out the joy, peace, and dynamic purpose that God has always intended for us.

Grace inspires us to choose relationship instead of performance.

In Exodus 34:5-7, God revealed his character to Moses—and to all of us—by first mentioning two defining qualities:

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin …

Exodus 34:6-7 NIV

Compassion and grace show how God interacts with us. He chooses to be gracious because he is more interested in a close relationship with us than in our performance or behavioral compliance.

I have often brought a performance mindset into my relationship with God, constantly trying to prove myself and avoid mistakes. Rather than seeing God as gracious, I have seen him as a distant authority figure with high expectations for me who is disappointed when I fall short. This leads me to do three things:

1. I detach my heart from God because I don’t want to be a disappointment to him.
2. I strive to have good religious behavior rather than striving to be connected with God. 
3. Being behavior-focused is exhausting and leads to burnout. Eventually, I lose the motivation to connect with God at all. 

But grace teaches me to think differently.

Grace frees us from trying to perform perfectly for God. It teaches us that our value is not in what we do, but in who we are. This understanding changes how I approach God—not out of fear of falling short, but with gratitude for his grace. My motivation to read the Bible and pray increases. 

When we see and understand God as compassionate and gracious, our desire to build a close friendship with him increases.

Grace inspires us to have intimacy in our walk with God.

Truly experiencing God’s grace will change how we relate to him. Psalm 103:8-14 paints a powerful and personal picture of God’s gracious nature and the intimate friendship we can have with him as a result:

The LORD is tender and kind. He is gracious. He is slow to get angry. He is full of love. [9] He won’t keep bringing charges against us. He won’t stay angry with us forever. [10] He doesn’t punish us for our sins as much as we should be punished. He doesn’t pay us back in keeping with the evil things we’ve done. [11] He loves those who have respect for him. His love is as high as the heavens are above the earth. [12] He has removed our sins from us. He has removed them as far as the east is from the west. [13] A father is tender and kind to his children. In the same way, the LORD is tender and kind to those who have respect for him. [14] He knows what we are made of. He remembers that we are dust.”

Psalm 103:8-14 (NIRV)

When we understand that God doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, it becomes easier to approach him when we feel guilty, weak, or in need. This is how grace builds intimacy, which means having such closeness in a relationship that we let the other person see everything about us—our sins, our mistakes, our desires, our weaknesses, our needs, and more. 

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

God’s graciousness gives us the confidence to approach him boldly, even when we are in great need of mercy. 

There was a time in my marriage when selfish ambition consumed me. I was deceitful and hardened by resentment, prioritizing my work success over my wife. I didn’t fully grasp how much I had hurt her, and the guilt didn’t faze me like it should have. I justified my actions, focusing on my goals instead of our relationship.

But through the help of spiritual friends, I began to see the damage I had caused—not just in my marriage, but in my relationship with God. I realized that my actions weren’t just failures in my marriage, but offenses against God’s call to love sacrificially. That realization was eye-opening. I knew I needed to pray for a change of heart—to ask for the humility to love God and my wife more than my own ambitions.

It was hard to approach God at first because I felt so guilty. But verses like Hebrews 4 reassured me that in these moments of guilt, God wants me to draw closer to him. 

Despite my betrayal and pride, God gave me grace and a new start in my marriage. My wife not only forgave me but also responded with how much she valued our relationship and wanted us to change together. Her response humbled me and motivated me to change and love her more deeply. Through her example, I began to understand God’s grace more clearly. God wasn’t focused on my sins—he was happy to restore and renew our relationship, setting it up to change and grow deeper.

At his core, God is more parental than punitive. We can come to him with our struggles and failures, knowing he won’t define us by them. Instead, he offers us the chance to learn from our mistakes. His grace gives us the opportunity to move forward, leaving our sins behind so that we can grow into the people he created us to be.

This is made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus sacrificed his life to provide grace and forgiveness for sins so that we can begin a new life with God:

We have been set free because of what Christ has done. Because he bled and died our sins have been forgiven. We have been set free because God’s grace is so rich. He poured his grace on us. By giving us great wisdom and understanding, he showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to do. It was what he had planned through Christ.

Ephesians 1:7-9 NIrV

Understanding and reflecting on God’s grace—how tender, kind, sacrificial, and relational God is—deepens our desire to pursue and connect with him. It helps us become more open than hidden, willing to freely admit our sins because he freely gives us forgiveness and the opportunity to start again.

Grace inspires us to change.

God’s grace not only brings forgiveness but also the desire to grow and change. When we experience God’s grace, we can’t help but respond with gratitude and a desire to live differently. 

In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul highlights the source of the powerful impact God made through his life: 

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.

1 Corinthians 15:10 NIV

Paul didn’t boast in his own strength or achievements, but in the grace of God that transformed him from a persecutor of Christians to one of the greatest life-changers and advocates for the Gospel. He was continually inspired to know God better and to grow into who we was meant to be:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. [12] Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. [13] Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:10-14 NIV

When we experience God’s grace, it will not be without impact or effect in our lives. It will inspire us to keep growing and changing in our relationship with God rather than settling or looking backward. 

Grace inspires us to love others.

But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.

Luke 6:35 CSB

Experiencing God’s grace is not just about feeling forgiven—it’s about responding with a changed heart. God’s grace toward us is unconditional, and we are called to extend that same grace to others. This is one of the clearest signs that we are walking in God’s grace—we forgive, we love, and we show mercy to others because we have received all of this from God.

Practically, this looks like forgiving others just as God forgives us (Ephesians 4:32) and being kind to people —even when they are unkind to us (Luke 6:35-36).

Grace makes us eager to love others. It inspires us to overcome any obstacle with courage and faith so that we can share God’s grace with more people.  

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus–the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Acts 20:24 NLT

Our experience of God’s grace makes us more loving, patient, selfless, and spiritual, seeing the world not as a place to take from, but a place to give to. 

Among them were some people from Cyprus and Cyrene. They entered Antioch and began to proclaim the good news about the Lord Jesus also to Gentiles. [21] The Lord’s power was with them, and a large number came to believe and turned to the Lord. [22] When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. [23] When he arrived and saw evidence of God’s grace, he was overjoyed and encouraged everyone to remain fully committed to the Lord.

Acts 11:20-23 CEB

God’s grace is incredibly inspiring, and we can change people’s lives by sharing it. 

Wrapping up

Grace is the inspiration behind the Christian life. God gives us his grace freely, blessing our lives with forgiveness and favor that we haven’t done anything to earn. It is our gratitude for this grace that motivates us to build an intimate relationship with God to keep growing into who we are meant to be. 

When we experience burnout or lose our desire to love God or others, embracing the power of grace can reignite our faith. Grace fills our lives with the forgiveness, love, and purpose God has always intended for us to experience.