I've been thinking a lot about choices--those we feel free to make and those that carry with them some parameters.  Certainly God made us in his image in that we have the freedom to embrace God or reject God--accept God's gift of grace or reject it.  The greatest threat to acceptance of God is arrogance or what the Greeks called hubris--essentially becoming our own god.  That is a  more frequent choice than we might imagine.  The apostle Paul writes, "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but evil I do not want is what I do (Romans 7:18b-19)."  Paul spoke of it is a an ongoing conflict to do what God willed and what he willed. 

It is much easier for me to do what I will i.e., what is certain and well within my grasp than to do God's will which may not always be as clear.  I know that God's will in any given situation is to do what is most loving (selfless love) in any given situation.  I can will it, but I seem at times unable to choose always to do it.  To get beyond that I need a boost and that is what God's grace does for me.  God's grace does not take me out of the struggle since that grace is not cheap.  God's grace does give me that strength of presence to on some occasions emerge victorious and redeemed. 

To wrestle with a choice between God's will and my own in any given issue is to choose what Jesus calls the narrow gate and the hard road which is really the only way to life--spiritual vitality. (Matthew 7:14)  So, grace is not cheap, but it beats the legalisms of the world.  I would be interested in your understanding of grace.