Not one of us is perfect except by the Grace of God. I am saved because of that God given Grace. Because of that gift of grace, I love Him and put Him first in my life. I try to remember to ask Him in prayer for the opportunity to share the gospel and to show the light of Christ in all my behavior. Now, do I do this all the time, and am I perfectly serving Him? To be honest I must admit no, at times I resist some of the things he wants me to do because those things are scary and I may fear failure at times. Do I seek to speak to others about my faith? I fail that many times; due to fear of feeling rejected. Many others feel the same way. So how do we show Real-World Grace when we are not perfect? As we have stated previously, we love people who are failing and share bread with them, we build relationships with them, and we let them know that no one can be living perfect lives in Christ, but as Paul states in his letter to the Philippians:

“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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14.

Without trying and without trusting in Jesus we will live in the world, feeling alone, and lost. If you know and realize that there is only one way to God, it still might be difficult for you to understand fully the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Jewish community were constantly looking forward to the Messiah appearing and yet they still failed to see Jesus for what and who He was and yet He was present in their world, right before their very eyes! So, it is with us working to bring others to Christ – we have the Holy Spirit abiding within us. We have so much available power through the Holy Spirit.

Many of us do not utilize or take advantage of the Spirit’s anointing enough. Often, we do not ask God enough to save us from our sins that the writer of Hebrews states so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1). We need to heed what the Apostle told us about sin and temptation:

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Another great help, along with the Holy Spirit’s guidance is being in fellowship with other Christians which helps us to do better. So, we may be the mentor or we may be the disciple in our relationship with other Christians, either way, they are a strength we can rely upon as well as the Spirit of God.

Our treatment of our brothers and sisters may be much different than how we deal with our relationships among non-Christians. In relationships with brothers and sisters, we can work to improve and teach each other how we should live. It is not the same with unchurched folks, we must go where they are and we need to acknowledge and understand that Christ went to sinners and knew where they we coming from in the world. Many of the sinners Christ encountered later became important and influential leaders in the church. We cannot reject people outright because of their sinful nature, we must love them where they are at. How easy it is to forget that we ourselves were in that same sinking boat that they are in. We must love them in this messy world. Real-World Grace means that we love the sinner in our actions and reaction, just not the sin.

Sin is something that causes us to miss the mark and fall short, but Christ Jesus can remove that burden from us.