As I was studying this passage earlier this week, the words "receive mercy" and "find grace" stuck out to me. The author could have written "receive mercy and grace" or "find mercy and grace" but no--he wrote "receive mercy and find grace."
This drove me to the Greek to see what the difference in the two verbs could be in the original and what this could mean for us. What I found was interesting!
Receive--Gk: λαμβάνω lambanō: to lay ahold of any person or thing in order to use it; to take what is already one's own.
Mercy--Gk: ἔλεος eleos: kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.
Find--Gk: εὑρίσκω heuriskō: to practice and experience; to find out for one's self.
Grace--Gk: χάρις charis: goodwill, favor, of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ; keeps, strengthens, increases them in the Christian faith, knowledge, and affection; and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian values.
In essence, receiving mercy only requires the accepting, but grace builds upon the accepting by putting the grace into action through practice. God freely bestows mercy and grace (a result of mercy) upon our lives every day and it is by no means earned, but we choose whether we practice and experience it. We choose the finding.
Grace is simply Mercy working out on a daily run. Receiving Mercy says "I'm forgiven and set free" and Finding Grace says "I'm going to live like it." Too often we stop at the receiving.
How are you finding grace today?
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