Here's my attempt to define God's grace: Grace is God’s lavish and undeserved free gift of eternal life, and his ongoing generosity, affection, goodness, initiative, & faithfulness to you because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.Grace is a lavish gift--it is huge, abundant and contrary to merit. Grace is not only seeing your past as forgiven, but your present and future as full of hope. If you live under grace you have the general expectation that God will always be generous in spite of you. Under grace, you never have God in your dept because you were good and God never stops pursuing you and initiating good because you sinned. Note carefully that grace needs to always be linked with Jesus Christ, or it will become some nebulous substance rather than a personal relationship. It is Jesus who you fall in love with because of grace. As you realize you are treasured by Him, you increasingly treasure Him.
According to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-21, God wants to awe us with his grace. The essence of the prayer is that you will grow spiritually and God would be glorified as you (together) are awed (impressed, overwhelmed) by God’s grace. Paul is not asking for them to only know about grace, but to encounter God’s gracious love personally, which in turn awes and deepens your enjoyment of Him and your role as His servant.
This prayer is for not the strength to be strong so you are in control and don’t need God. It is not for the strength to make your life work according to your agenda. It is not for a private and individual experience of God isolated from relationships in community. It is for the grace of God to roll over you like waves in a way that moves you and your grace-awed friends to want to make God known.
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