Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours forevermore from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of August 2020. And I pray that God will work out in you all through the week everything that is pleasing in His sight and that you will not waste His grace, in Jesus name. Amen.
Now I offered that prayer for you because my desire is that your life will be a full expression of the grace and goodness of God. Have you received the grace of God at all? If you are a child of God, then, you have received His grace. And that is because the bible says it is by His grace that we have been saved. In other words, it is as a result of what God has done and given that we were saved from our sins, the works of the devil and eternal destruction. (Cf. Eph 2:1-10)
However, what God has done and given to us ought to find expression in our lives. I mean it ought to be obvious that God has actually saved us, recreated us and taken charge of our lives. For example, in writing to the Thessalonians, Paul says, “You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.” (1Thess 2:1NIV) Why would he say this to these brethren? It was because he could see a visible expression of the grace of God in their lives. As he points out in the first chapter of this letter, the word of God’s grace that they received did not leave their lives unaffected. It changed them. It made them turn away from the worship of idols to serve the living God and to wait for the return of His Son, Jesus Christ. Not only that, it turned them into models for believers in many other places to emulate. Therefore, the grace of God to them was not in vain. (Cf. 1Thess 1:4-10)
Also, Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says of himself, “…and his grace to me was not wasted…” (1Cor 15:10NCV) That means God’s grace accomplished the purpose He desired in his life. It made him the kind of person He wanted him to be and also enabled him to do the kind things He wanted him to do. But can we say the same thing about ourselves? Can we say that the grace of God that we have received is making us the kind of persons God wants us to be?
If the grace of God that has been poured out on us is not making us the kind of persons He wants us to be, then, it means we are wasting it. How does this become possible? It becomes possible when we refuse to respond appropriately and adequately to His grace. God’s grace for salvation, righteous living and spiritual service has been made available to us free of charge. And it has been freely put at our disposal in His word, His Spirit and the fellowship of the brethren. That means we can enjoy God’s grace by embracing the ministry of His word, of His Spirit and of His people that He has placed in our lives.
But then, even though these things have been freely made available to us, they will not automatically translate into changed lives for us, if we will not make the most of them. What I am saying is that if we will not take the ministry of the word of God to us very seriously, embracing what it is saying to us and living in the light of it, our lives will not express the grace of God. Also, if we will not allow the Spirit of God to take charge of our lives and affairs, counting on Him for everything we need in life, our lives will not be what God wants them to be in this world. Then, if we will not take adequate and appropriate advantage of the presence of the godly people that have been placed in our lives, we will not attain the maturity we are meant to attain in living in this world and in handling life.
Now, as I said before, inasmuch as we are not becoming more and more of all that God wants us to be and doing all that He expects us to do, we are wasting His grace and the labour of the Spirit on us. And can we waste His grace like this and still expect His praise? Will it not even suggest that we probably never received His grace but have been deceiving ourselves all along? Well, I want you to know that if you have received the grace of God at all, it ought to manifest in your life. And if it is not manifesting for all to see, you need to start asking yourself some very serious questions about your response towards utilising it. And may the Spirit of God open your eyes to see where you are missing it and enable you to begin to do what is right with His grace.
Do have a splendid week.
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By: J.O. Lawal | Date: August 09, 2020 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 9, No. 13