“The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33 NLT)
What is the greatest evidence in your life of the presence of God’s grace? For me it’s the fact of my salvation in Christ alone by faith alone. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8a: “God saved you by His grace when you believed.” But grace doesn’t end at the point of salvation. In a very real sense, that’s only the beginning of God’s great work of grace in our lives.
Check out this definition of “grace” in Strong’s Concordance: “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ” and that’s the one with which most of us are so familiar. But listen to the rest of the definition: He turns us to Christ, but then grace continues it’s work as the Lord “keeps, strengthens, increases them (us) in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them (us) to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”
Some people I’ve met over the years seem to have the mistaken notion that they no longer need God’s grace. It’s as if their attitude becomes: “Okay Lord, You can back off now, I’ve got this!” It’s like a toddler believing they can ride their tricycle on the freeway – “It ain’t happenin’!” There’s not a second of our life – with or without Christ – that we’re not completely dependent upon the kindness and favor of God to survive.
Paul David Tripp wrote: “It’s wonderful that God’s grace never grows weary or runs out because, this side of eternity, no one is a grace graduate.” God’s grace sustains us in the best of times, but most necessarily, when times aren’t so good. And the odd thing about how we tend to think, we often miss the reality of God’s kindness, mercy, and grace until the crisis has passed.
In the fire, we’re so busy (and distracted) by the seeming constant pressures of the current crisis, we miss the nurse’s gentle, calm, kind voice, or the doctor’s smile, or the close friend’s quiet presence. Remember when the Lord instructed Elijah to stand before Him on the mountain? “And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Eliah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”
God often speaks more “in the whisper” than in the turbulence of our circumstances, but like trying to carry on a conversation in a noisy restaurant, we too often miss what the Lord is seeking to say to us. The grace of God fine tunes His voice to our spiritual “ears” and speaks words of life, health, guidance, strength, wisdom, calm assurance, and whatever else we might need, into our life.
When you consider it seriously, there’s not one second of our existence we’re not utterly and completely dependent upon God’s grace for every detail of our lives. We’re not only saved by grace, our very being is sustained by grace. To get a picture of what that might look like, pick up a sizeable rock and extend your arm as you hold it in your hand. Then, as quickly as you can, pull your hand out from under the rock. What happens to the rock? The same thing that would happen to your life without the sustaining grace of God.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 