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Extending Grace
By Bill Moeny

"And whenever you stand praying, if you had anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing." Mark 11:25

Have you been in a position where it was clear that God was requiring you to extend grace in a situation that seemed very unfair?

Perhaps you had a customer, an important customer, who wanted to buy a lot of your product, but were being very difficult in negotiating the terms.

Or perhaps you are trying to negotiate a strategic alliance and your potential strategic partner was being exceptionally difficult in agreeing to terms. And while, from your perspective they were clearly in the wrong, God's clear admonition to you was "you must extend to them the same grace I have extended to you".

That is a heavy command. How much grace has God extended to you and to me? Where would we be today without His grace?

Our very salvation is a direct result of His unmerited grace extended to us. And how about the business? If your business is like ours, there would be no business without God's grace.

Our technology has come directly from Him. Our business contacts, our customers, and the potential strategic partner are all gifts from Him. And the same is true of your company.

There would be no business without His grace.

He has stated unequivocally: "without Me you can do nothing". It is His grace that enables the Holy Spirit, representing Christ, to do the work of the business through us.

So, how much wrong do we need to endure, in "extending to them the same grace I have extended to you"? How many insults? How many missed deadlines, where they said they would do something and did not? The answer is: As much as Christ tells us to.

If Christ owns our business, then He has the right to direct us through the minefield of difficult customer relations or difficult negotiations. Our relationship with Christ through daily prayer and study of Scripture is therefore the key to our extending grace. There is no limit to the grace He has extended to us and therefore, He is the only one who can set the limits of the grace we are to extend to others.

It is all about the relationship with Christ, isnÔÇÖt it? He is Lord, and we are not. His role is to command and provide, our role is to obey.

The time of prayer with Him each day is the most important time we spend on the business and in our lives.