What is "Grace"?

1Pe 5:5-6 ¶ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

We have seen that a key to success in serving Christ is humility: we are to seek low positions, not high ones; and we are to submit to the human authority that God puts over us. Doing this gives us humility, and humility gives us grace.  So, what exactly happens when God gives you grace?

Paul explained what grace did for him: 1Co 15:10 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. Paul wrote that grace had changed him, and it made him work hard for the Lord; grace gave Paul the desire and ability to do God's work. Have you tried to serve God, but failed? Did you eventually give up trying? If so, you need grace, which God gives to the humble.