What is required of us to access grace?

This post continues my series on the connections between mercy and grace.  First, I'm studying each concept separately.  See my previous posts about mercy here and here. In this post, I'll present some thoughts on what the Book of Mormon teaches about grace.

As I studied the 27 times where "grace" appears in the Book of Mormon, one of the first questions I asked was this:

What is required of us to access grace?

Here's a summary of what I found. In the passages below, I've placed actions taken by the people who received grace in bold/italics:

• they were baptized in the waters of Mormon, and were filled with the grace of God. (Mosiah 18:16)
• And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support; but for their labor they were to receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God. (Mosiah 18:26)
• Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support, in all cases save it were in sickness, or in much want; and doing these things, they did abound in the grace of God. (Mosiah 27:5)
• I have come having great hopes and much desire that I should find that ye had humbled yourselves before God, and that ye had continued in the supplicating of his grace, (Alma 7:3)
• And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works. (Helaman 12:24)
• ...my grace is sufficient for the meek....my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; (Ether 12:26)
• ...seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. (Ether 12:41)
• I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end. (Moroni 8:3)
• Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32)
• Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember...it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. (2 Nephi 10:24)

Here is the same list, stripped of all the other parts of those verses:

• they were baptized
• the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support
• labor with their own hands for their support
• humbled yourselves before God
• continued in the supplicating of his grace
• that men might be brought unto repentance and good works
• the meek....humble themselves before me
• ...seek this Jesus
• through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.
• come unto Christ
• be perfected in him
• deny yourselves of all ungodliness
• love God with all your might, mind and strength
• reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh;
• remember...it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved

That is pretty powerful advice on how to seek grace!