Exodus 34:6 says: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth…”,
In what ways can you do these in your daily walk with God and with your neighbor: Gracious.
Gracious means marked by kindness and courtesy; characterized by charm, good taste, generosity of spirit.
One of the excellent traits of God is that He is gracious. We have great gratitude to God because of His graciousness. We seek to be around those who are gracious, and as followers of God, we seek a gracious spirit and to show grace to others.
Psalms 145:8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
It’s easy to respond hatefully to people who offend us, disrespect us, make us angry, hate us, or disagree with us. Christ would have us to be different.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Matthew 16:24
This Bible verse is rich and packed full of meaning and applies in a lot of different ways. One is to deny your natural tendency to respond to harshness with harshness. This is always true, whether it is to someone you perceive as higher in status than you, equal to you, or lower in status than you. Think your boss, politicians, CEO’s, rich people; or your neighbor; or someone who has less power than you – maybe your child, or a family member who has less. How hard is it to hold back blasting a person who truly deserves it? Consider what great fruits it can have when you respond with graciousness, kindness and generosity. Not only will it demonstrate your honor to Christ’s love to you, it will tend to cause the other person to respond more graciously to you, and maybe to love you more.
Practice graciousness today, with your own self, with those closest to you, with those you deal with often, and with strangers. Honor God. God will greatly reward your practice.