I have been meditating on what it means to be “established with grace.“
The particular text of interest is, “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not 
with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” (He 13:9) There are many other great verses which might also be helpful here.
What is grace? What does it mean to be established with something? How can we live this out in God? What does it look like, and how do we get there?
My thought: being established with grace is more than knowing God’s love and forgiveness, more than resting in Christ’s unconditional acceptance; it is having supernatural confidence that God is transforming me into the image of Christ, creating His likeness in me, enabling me to love and obey Him. (2Co 9:8) Through the power of the Holy Spirit I access grace by faith … that is, I rest in Christ’s utter sufficiency and faithfulness, delighting in Him, being filled with all joy and peace in believing, abounding in hope. (Ro 15:13)
Establishing grace in our hearts is probably the easiest thing to do, yet the hardest to allow to happen. Grace is knowing we are forgiven when we know we don’t deserve forgiveness. In the pursuit of God, seeking Him with all our heart, all our strength with all our mind, we can discover in reality and receive in our hearts God’s grace. In turn we are able, not by our own efforts but by the power of the Holy Spirit, to extend grace to others. Many, many people who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour miss out in this part of their relationship with Jesus. We miss the personal intimate relationship with the Lord that He intends for us. When we experience the presence of God, we experience His love for us, His forgiveness, His grace. When that happens, our hearts are filled with His love, Grace and forgiveness and we can’t help but to overflow that into the lives of others
Realizing we are completely forgiven in Christ, and being willing to walk in that forgiveness with others, is certainly huge. But is this really what grace is? Verses like He 12:28,1Cor 3:10, 1Co 15:10 suggest it is something more, different. How does Strong define it (Strong’s concordance) and how does his definition enlighten our understanding of these verses?
Free and undeserving favor. As I read those verses, it tells me that it is the relational understanding that I spoke about in the previous comment. Head knowledge is much different than heart knowledge. What drove Paul to labor so much for the kingdom of God? Is grace distributed in different levels? Unless I am missing the point of your question?
When I look up “charis” in Strong’s I get a different definition altogther: “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life.” Do you know of a verse that tells us to give grace to anyone? Is there any indication in the Word that we can we be a source of grace to/for others?
I’m still learning about GRACE – and wanted to say that I agree the definition you posted is considered the primary one by most scholars. Here’s a word study I found that confirms the same and adds some depth and dimension to it. Net net is that favor includes forgiveness and mercy, but it does seem to be so much more. Hope your heart and mine are “established with grace!” 🙂
http://www.bible-researcher.com/grace.html
I have been studying those verses you listed and also agree that grace (charis) as used in the context is more than we realize. I enjoy the deeper study of God’s word and seek to achieve the grace spoken of in the Word. I know through the power of the Holy Spirit (it’s not by power, nor by might but by My Spirit says the Lord), we are able to achieve that. Our hearts are established with grace one towards another. I hope that in textual form that I didn’t give that impression.
Thanks for sharing your insights. It has been helpful.
Here’s where I am in my current understanding and application. Would love your thoughts / comments / suggestions, and your prayers that I could walk faithfully here.
http://www.ableever.net/…/established_with_grace.html
In Paul’s books he starts with grace and peace to you. Paul knew how important grace is. 1 Corinthians 15:10 is an indication of that.
I agree very much! Thanks for the comment!
Grace today, in much of Christendom, has come to mean God’s unmerited favor by which He covers over our sins.
Yes, this is one of the meanings of grace. But not the predominant meaning in the NT.
The more predominant meaning is that grace is not merely a “cover over,” but is God’s empowering presence, through Y’Shua, by which we can walk in holiness. It’s God’s power infused from the outside, into our lives, through faith in Y’Shua.
So many Christians live defeated lives, because they passively accept that they still have a sin nature and there’s nothing they can do about it. They do not pursue holiness.
But NT Grace is actually God’s power to enable us to walk in the LORD’s way and live a life of holiness, set apart and sold out to the LORD.
The Church needs to rediscover this biblical meaning of grace, which is the key to revival and leading a victorious life in Messiah.
Awesome! Thank you.
I agree on your definition of grace. Most people think of forgiveness or leniency or mercy and confuse the terms.
This re-definition of the word deeply impacts how one reads and understands the Word when this term is used. We can’t be delivered from the related lies through the Word if we don’t get the definition correct here: we just keep reinforcing the lie as we read. This is one of my purposes in asking for dialogue, to help people think about it and go a little deeper.
I think of grace as divine enablement, not so much a presence but a life or power or inclination or enabling. Strong (of Strong’s concordance), defines charis as “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life.”
If you have any further thoughts on the practical application, on the “how to” please share!
How do we establish our hearts with the enabling power of God?
In answer to your follow-up question on practical application / “how to” establish our hearts with God’s enabling / empowering Presence, I would offer three suggestions:
(i) daily meditating on the Word, and letting it really soak into our hearts, as we prayerfully read and meditate with an open heart, asking and expecting God to speak to us through His Word, which is powerful, active and alive! This may seem obvious, but how many of us really do this?
(ii) a renewed emphasis on the holiness of God. This has been all but lost in our feel-good, positive-thinking, seeker-friendly, slick-programming, mega-church movement. But one would be amazed how many passages in both the OT and the NT focus on a call to holiness.
(iii) rediscovering the lost concept of a healthy fear of God. The Bible says that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. We lack practical wisdom today because we’ve lost the fear of the LORD. In our hyper-grace excesses in today’s Evangelical Church, the fear of the LORD is seen as a “negative,” dirty word. But we’re commanded to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
I believe that these 3 steps are what will enable us to establish God’s power into our lives – to allow His Grace to truly transform our lives.
WOW!! I couldn’t agree more!
Thanks so much for sharing.
We don’t establish God into our hearts, God does it. He comes to us.
We just need to accept the grace (divine influence on our hearts) He is giving us. If we accept grace, it shows in how we live our lives.
(Reflection in the life.) Hebrews 4:16 one can come to the throne of grace
and look to it a time of need, which can be thru prayer or in God’s word.
Interesting question! I’ve been reading through the FFOZ book Galatians, and it reminds me of a part of the commentary on why Paul would want the Gentile believers in Yeshua to not go through any Jewish conversion process. If they came to faith in Yeshua and completely converted to Judaism as an immediate next step (essentially as part of receiving Salvation), it would cause an association to be formed in their minds between the two, and they would be torn between their newfound Jewish identity and their identity in Yeshua. Suddenly becoming legally bound to Temple procedure and to the Sanhedrin and all Jewish law, this could present a number of problems and conflicts for a new convert and believer in Yeshua.
So in the above case they would not be established in Yeshua and they would go through a process of establishing themselves in Judaism – which in many cases would be hostile to followers of Yeshua.
The example the author is using in Hebrews 13 (I assume the author to be Paul), is clearly directed at either Jewish believers in Yeshua or believers in Yeshua who have converted or were in the process of conversion to Judaism. Given the reference to the Tanach before and the reference to specifics of the Temple service immediately after, the audience narrows down and is not necessarily directed to believing God-fearers (though the idea still applies).
Paul talks a lot about grace, and from our conversations over the years I’ve come to define grace as a divine enablement. When the Bible talks about our hearts, it usually refers to the seat of our intellect – what we could call the brain. A romantic way to speak, and we still do it to this day. So Paul wants our hearts – the seat of our intellect, our mind and consciousness, to be established (rooted from the beginning from and through which we do everything else), in the divine enablement of God.
So take a person who’s entire sense of self is rooted in God’s divine enablement, and this individual has a very specific sense of purpose in life. It’s not football, business, work, or any hobby or profession. Life may contain these things, but these items are never the goal, nor are they what your “heart” is “established with”.
His contrast to this is something that I find interesting. Without digging too deep into what exactly he is talking about here, which I don’t currently have the resources to do, it strikes me that he is making a Kabbalistic reference regarding “meats” or rather food. Perhaps there was an idea of some sort of mystic holiness you got from only eating certain types of food, certain times, certain blessings, etc. Take it all in balance with (again, assuming Paul is the author) him having done at least one Nazarite vow, where he was forbidden certain foods for spiritual reasons. Regardless, if your heart is established with the food you are eating – no matter how you interpret the rest of that verse – it’s a bad thing. Even if Paul were talking about any sort of Kosher diet here (which I doubt), that should simply be a thing that you do, and not what you’re established with.
From verse association, I am thinking of the first and greatest commandment, to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. The other part is 1 Corinthians 13, where if you have all the righteous works and abilities, but lack love, then you are nothing. The author here could have chosen to say “For it is a good thing that the heart be established with Torah” or “love”, but instead our hearts are established in something that does not and cannot come from us, but is something that we must receive from Him.
I really like what you are saying here Bro!
Much the same as what I have been thinking.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Is 26:3)
What do you think of this verse as it relates to our conversation?
I think I see a key here.
I think it’s saying something very similar, just in a different way and surrounded with a different context.
A few interesting things about the passage – this is taking place in Jerusalem (at the least in the land of Judah). It refers to a nation coming in; while I don’t have access to the Hebrew here, that usually refers to a Gentile nation (Goyim). I find this intriguing. It mentions gentiles, and in the immediate verse following it mentions that God keeps those at peace who trust and focus on Him.
Another point of interest is how often this passage discusses righteousness, uprightness, and the just. These are typically direct references to works, and not just a thought process. This seems intrinsic to God keeping us in peace.
Progressing though the chapter shows a close connection with obedience and God giving us grace. How perusing God and His ways will result in Him being closer to us (v. 7, 8, 9, 12). Do you think Yeshua’s parable of the talents and investing is applicable to God’s grace here? How if we are faithful with a little, God will give us more and more? I’m not talking about money or anything necessarily physical here.
My wife and I have talked about this quite a bit over the years: How God enables us with His grace, without which we cannot do anything, but at the same time we cannot passively receive His grace and either do nothing or do the wrong thing. King David had God’s grace, but he was not acting in grace when he slept with Bathsheba. Samson had God’s grace, but he was not acting in that when he was with Delilah. Several other examples (Moses, King Solomon, Jonah, etc). Having God’s grace still requires an action on our part – hence our free will, but just like a gun is useless without bullets, our best efforts are futile/useless without God’s grace.
I feel like I’m rabbit trailing a bit here, but I’m going to run with the thought. Everyone wants the ultimate portion of God’s grace – His full enablement to do everything. How many people have we met who were told in a vision or something that God had called them to be a prophet, healer, or “General”? Not everyone wants to put in the “work” to get there though, or to really live with it. Noah saw the whole world destroyed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lots of hardship and did not live to see those promises fulfilled. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness to go bring his people out of Egypt and then to have them be disobedient and to live in the wilderness AGAIN. Most of the prophets were killed. The disciples and apostles were killed or treated poorly. I suppose the lesson here is if you are receiving God’s grace, and go wherever He calls you, don’t expect the physical life to amount to anything – and if you are truly heaven-minded, you won’t care when physical conditions are less than ideal anyways.
Thoughts? I feel like I’m missing something here.
Love your thoughts and insights. I do think there is a kind of link between God enabling us and our responding in and with that enabling to complete it. There is no way to decouple grace and obedience of the will, though in this case I would not attribute it to “free” will, but a will that has been moved by the nature of God. Not sure exactly how it works yet. Seems that our part is to believe in and trust the nature of God and submit our wills in obedience to Him and He does the rest. While it is clear that God establishes us, He also call us to stablish our own hearts: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” (Jas 5:8).
Another verse that seems to tie this together for me is “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (2Cor 3:5) We must be constantly aware of His utter sufficiency and of our dependence on Him, but at the same time we are not passive, acting through our wills to obey and honor Him as He enables us. There is certainly a mystery there, but I think this grace concept is at the heart of it, God working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Php 2:13))
And another text that seems to help is: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” (2Cor 9:8) Knowing this is the nature of God and walking in a continual awareness of and confidence in Him to equip us in the spiritual life (really, in ALL facets of life) seems to be equivalent to having our hearts established with grace. It is a walk of active faith and focus, keeping our trust rooted in the enabling nature of God rather than in the flesh or the world.
Good stuff. 🙂
One verse, which I personally find extremely meaningful.
This may be my “intellectual” overview, and it HAS to be spiritually discerned as our natural and carnal minds can NOT receive the things of Abba.
Short version: Abba LOVES TIM HAYES beyond Tim’s ability to comprehend, believe, understand, and in this life, to even know.
And it IS GOOD that Tim’s heart be established in that, more than all Tim’s or mine or whoever’s meats. ONLY a Heart established in Grace realizes all the works of Ephesians 2 === come forth through Messiah IN YOU by His Grace and by His Glory…… that no Tim or no myself or no Paul or no man should Glory in His Sight.
You have babies trying to eat meat and understand great mysteries and they choke to death and grow up self-righteous. [ponder that… watch babes wrestle within as the watch big people discuss doctrine – it’s an eye opener]
G-d Grace Jesus Faith Works
On a human level, would you want your daughter understanding that she is one of the most precious persons in the world to you because of her “works of righteousness for you” OR do you want her to KNOW you love when she steps to the left, to the right, forwards or backwards…. her small a abba loves her, and no devil in hell, no sin she might fall prey to willingly or unwillingly will turn your heart from her. Ponder it a bit.
I don’t mean Grace is cheap. I don’t mean we don’t need to repent. What saith the Word — we LOVE him because he First Loved US….
If you daughter knows YOU ABSOLUTELY CHERISH HER — then if she wants to repent about something — she is free to seek your counsel; but if you only accept her because her works make her worthy in your sight….. then her heart is not established in Grace, it is established in works.
Scriptures makes plain, faith without works is DEAD. But works that are true down in the marrow of the bone can not proceed out of works…… they have to proceed out of — almost adoration….
There are various points that one can run off into…..
Think of a newborn babe suckling at it’s mother’s breast…. all the baby does is to drink the milk… meat would kill it at this point. Now a heart established in Grace may wonder too freely off the reservation… and John tells us HE scourges every son he Receives…. what did David say, though I make my bed in hell etc….
Probably over 1000 messages in the words below — will try to note some which relate to the topic 🙂
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The works, the meat is ordained. It does not come out of us, it comes through Messiah…. and He allows us to be one with Messiah, so it is really Messiah coming forth, not Tim, not Paul, certainly not me …. He Doeth the Work
Therefore it Is a Good Thing that the heart be established with Grace
At the risk of being long winded — weren’t the Jews accused of trying to establish themselves in their own righteousness?
WOW!! 🙂
Lot’s to ponder in your “rant” brother. Love it.
You have called me to mediate on the fact that we/I am loved beyond measure, forgiven utterly and entirely, and accepted in the beloved. That is awesome, and I will do it. I certainly need to do this, and I WANT to do it. (Ep 3:17)
However … I am thinking from what you wrote that you might equating grace with mercy, forgiveness, lovingkindness. Are you?
Do you see any meaningful difference between grace and mercy, or grace and forgiveness, or grace and lovingkindness?
If grace is merely a redundant word, then maybe it is not needed.
If it is something more, then might we be missing something if we don’t enquire of God in it?
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” (2 Cor 9:8)
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Co_12:9)
“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:28-9)
If we plug the word mercy, or forgiveness, or lovingkindness into these verses, do they really make sense?
Could it be that God has something more for us than just letting us off the hook for our sins and accepting us unconditionally?
And one more thought … just to mix things up and add some spice … would you write an entire story of the life of Christ, like a gospel or something, and never mention the love of God?
Or would you write an introductory history of the early church, maybe call it Acts or something, and never mention the love of God?
Do you think maybe — in overemphasizing the warm and fuzzy, the feel good thoughts of God — we might be distorting the image a little. Just a thought.
Jude 1:22
I will need to work through this, but will try.
Back to original scripture:
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” (Heb 13:9)
We have divers doctrines, I had focused more on meats. The statement that it is a Good thing that the heart be established With Grace; NOT with meats. Indicating there are different ways of establishing the heart, and some ways are better than others. And then a really interesting statement, that there is a context in which Meats do not profit them which have been occupied therein.
Excuse my humor, but, do we run the risk of getting occupied with meats, and not having our hearts established in Grace. Let’s focus on me. I agree that the Holy Spirit is my Teacher. I acknowledge that Ruach Ha-Kodesh who is NOT an “it” —leads me into all truth. The question I ask myself, is this, Am I choosing the classes I want to study, or is HE choosing the classes I study. I confess Tim, that too often, my intellect or mind or ego or etc. has “tried” to do the choosing. I tend to fail, when that happens, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly. This paragraph is intellect trying to define something – it may not make much sense. Won’t offend me if it does not.
To bring this back to a human on human example. A woman who believes in her heart of hearts that a man loves her, really loves her, whatever that means to her — she will put up with more garbage, then a woman who does not believe she is loved. No woman likes garbage, not saying that… ponder
You wrote, “You have called me to mediate on the fact that we/I am loved beyond measure, forgiven utterly and entirely, and accepted in the beloved. That is awesome, and I will do it. I certainly need to do this, and I WANT to do it. (Ep 3:17)” [Yes, I am encouraging that for us sheep in general, and you and I specifically]
You continue, “However … I am thinking from what you wrote that you might equating grace with mercy, forgiveness, lovingkindness. Are you?
Do you see any meaningful difference between grace and mercy, or grace and forgiveness, or grace and lovingkindness?” [Possibly. I’m not that gifted in parsing these terms. In a limited view, I would look at GOD being the ROOT of all, and Grace being a root of the other terms, simply from Genesis where it states that Noah found Grace in the sight of the Lord. Noah also received a divine work to walk in, and Noah did indeed walk in it. A TREE may have a “stump root” — and there may be many branches in the TREE, such as loving kindess, mercy… whether Grace is a stump root or another branch, I do not know, so I don’t belabor it.]
Since the Holy Spirit chooses to use those different words in different places, that is GOOD enough for me to accept, that the words do express different facests of that ONE DIAMOND, but there is only ONE GOD, one diamond in this parable… And His understanding is beyond this mortal. He Calls Every Star BY NAME, which means he is intimately acquainted with the trillion zillion zillion stars, what place they currently occupy in the Universe, how old they are, how long they will exist etc. Since those terms are on your heart, you’ve brought it up once before —- I would Cast them upon Him, and in due season, as HE SEES you need more revelation, HE will bring it.
Like Job, I can only say, Though He SLAY ME 🙂 —- yet will I trust Him. Personally, my intellect is VAIN, totally VAIN. Of that, I have no doubt. And it is written that our Natural Man our Carnal Man can not receive the things of G-d. If, the scripture about the heart being established in Grace has come to your attention, and you bear witness to the Holy Spirit bringing it to your attention — probably won’t hurt to sit on that verse awhile 🙂 I am defining intellect as our native intelligence when not yoked to Abba, as Vain.
I trust I have not been overly offensive.
But I say it again: Abba LOVES TIM HAYES beyond Tim’s ability to comprehend, believe, understand, and in this life, to even know.
He LOVES You. And like Noah, it is written, and Tim Hayes found Grace in the sight of the Lord.
No offence at all. Beauty upon beauty.
I’ll just pour out my thoughts here as they come to me and see what happens.
My “thinking” (I don’t distinguish between carnal thinking and spiritual thinking any more than between carnal breathing and spiritual breathing) is that grace is power, divine power, divine enablement. It is, as I think you hinted at, the root from which all godliness springs.
Grace is not forgiveness and leniency: this is mercy, not grace.
Grace is not love or lovingkindness or favor: it would be a needless redundancy with these wonderful words.
Grace is YHWH living in us, enabling us, giving us the ability to live for Him, helping us to think clearly, to reason truly, to believe consistently, to discern deeply, to love, to perceive, to understand. When YHWH says to Paul, “my grace is sufficient for thee,” He is not saying to Paul that he is completely forgiven and accepted; He is reminding Paul that He is all Paul needs. “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” There is no power in mere forgiveness, no ability in mere mercy, the withholding of judgement. Grace is more that this; it is an actual power, a real gift, not the absence of something but a real spiritual substance; not a disposition God has toward us, but an actual gift of spiritual strength or capability or tendency. It is life.
I see this in several texts like the ones I sent, noting how the standard definitions don’t seem to fit, and by carefully thinking about how Strong’s Concordance defines grace: “the divine influence upon the heart and its manifestation in the life.” Grace is a spiritual beauty, an outward expression of an inward transformation. It is a divine life springing forth in the spirit and producing the likeness of Jesus Christ as a practical reality.
When Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” I think he found the ability to live and act in real righteousness; this was God’s gift to him — to live godly in an ungodly environment – faith to obey and love and persevere against the ridicule of the entire world and against all external evidence, against all odds, to do the ridiculous with a steady wisdom and confidence that must have frustrated all who mocked him. It was God empowering Noah to walk in his calling, to fulfill his purpose in God.
I am beginning to see that the heart being established with grace is to have a continual and settled conviction that God is enough, that God will enable me to do and to be whatever it is that He calls me to do and to be. It is knowing that He is working in me to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Php 2:13) It is no longer being threatened or uneasy in any situation, or in the face of any difficulty. It is being kept in perfect peace as my mind is stayed, established, on Him. (Is 26:3) No other foundation will do; nothing else is acceptable. At the very hint of feeling vulnerable or threatened (emotionally or spiritually) I want to cultivate the habit of climbing out of the sand and mire, and getting back up on the Rock of Ages, and staying there, abiding there, camping out there.
This is more than being loved, it is more than being accepted, it is a supernatural confidence that I can do anything God tells me to do because He will enable me to do it.
It is the literal spiritual power behind: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me (with His grace).
Thoughts?
My turn to reciprocate the “Wow”.
I’m comfortable with GRACE being a substance,
For By GRACE are ye Saved… a power….
I appreciate the opportunity to encourage you to find
what was there all along…
One other verse comes to mind:
I Cor 15:10 which also bears some to your thought on
Grace as a Power…
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Thank you for sharing with me.
I appreciate it.
Very helpful. True that it was there all along … just needed to mine it out. No truth is really new, and when I find something precious like this it tends to be like a puzzle piece that I’ve been missing that helps a lot of the other pieces fit together and harmonize so much more completely. It’s connecting the dots a bit better now, helping me see just a little more clearly.
1Cor 15:10 may be the BEST verse to show this definition of grace … I’d been overlooking it. I think I may use that as my first example.
Our dialogue certainly has been edifying.
I want to share it with others and preserve it so I’ll clean it up a bit, sanitize, and post on the blog with you as Anonymous4.
Some of the other dialogue on the blog may be helpful to you as well since others have been sharing (via email, and posted similarly) and have helped me here.
I’ll send you the final article I put together on this subject too, if you are interested.
Thanks again for sharing your life in this endeavor. Hope it brings forth fruit in the kingdom. It has already helped me immensely.
To capture what I’ve learned in dialogue and meditation I’ve written a new article: “Established with Grace” and published it on the ABeliever site. The link to is in the original post now.
The dialogue has been very edifying to me and has helped me in my pursuit of grace and being established with it. I hope it has been helpful to others as well. Any further thoughts are most welcome.