Received Grace For Grace

"And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;" (D&C 93:12-13). I want to focus on the phrase "received grace for grace." This could be read as Jesus received grace in exchange for grace. He gave grace and then He received grace. I believe this is how one obtains grace. We must first give grace in order to receive grace. This isn't some kind of power play on God's part. He's not sitting there with His arms folded tapping his toe and saying I'll give you grace when I see you give some grace. Rather it's more a matter of bringing our souls into the proper alignment to be able to receive grace. When we reach out with love and compassion to help one another, when we give grace to someone who is struggling, we change the makeup of our souls. Sincere service humbles us, fills us with gratitude, in short, it prepares our souls to receive grace from God. The fact that when we focus on helping others solve our problems, it makes our problems seem smaller and more manageable is not just a psychological trick of putting things in perspective. God gives us grace for grace. He sees us in the service of our fellow brothers and sisters and He fills us with His enabling power. Again, this is all about bringing ourselves in tune with God and His goodness. His grace is all around us, all the time. But only when we are in the service of others does our soul have the right conditions to let the grace in. If we are bitter and angry and petty and selfish, then grace is going to boil off before it can penetrate all of the negative energy. But if we are filled with gratitude and humility because we have been giving grace to others then more grace is going to feel welcome and enter into our souls. If we give grace, then we will receive grace.