It All Belongs To God
What you and I have is ultimately not our own; it all belongs to God. Our time is His. Our Talent is His. Our Treasure is His. Little or much, temporary or lasting, tangible or unseen, everything in our lives is the property and possession of God. We have been entrusted to steward it faithfully, dispense it liberally, and credit it clearly to the One from Whom all blessings flow. Our stewardship will not be judged by the amount we are able to give, but by the readiness, cheerfulness and faithfulness of our giving. It is not a matter of how much we have to be generous with, but how generous we are with how much we have.
Wonderful Gifts From An Even More Wonderful God
It is right to enjoy the good gifts of God in the way that He designed them to be enjoyed because that’s why He gives them to us. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches of the created world are supposed to be enjoyed because God made them to send and made us to receive … pleasure. But rather than enjoying them too little (ingratitude) or too much (idolatry), let us enjoy them as they were intended, as a catalyst for treasuring the Gift-Giver far beyond what He might give to us. The gifts that God sends us are wonderful; but they are nowhere near as wonderful as Him.
God Speaks To Us Today
The Bible is referred to as the “Word of God” for a reason: God speaks through it. He says what He wants us to know about Himself and His creation, revealing how He designed the universe to work and what He has decided is best for us as we live in it. He expects us to respond in some way every time we read from its pages… By doing, saying, correcting, believing, feeling, thinking, or sharing something. We are to listen for the voice of Jesus and follow Him the best we know how in any given moment, and strive to know more so we can better follow Him in the moments to come. Doing so brings honor to God and happiness to us.
What He Tells Us To Do
God wants us to be happy. When He tells us in the Bible to do, say, correct, believe, feel, think or share something, it is not to take away our happiness, but rather it is to take away the things that are in the way of our full and lasting happiness. We must trust that God is after our happiness, that He knows best how to bring about our happiness, and that what He tells us in the Bible is designed to lead us into happiness. Doing what God tells us is not always easy, popular or instantly gratifying. But it is always for good, always better in the end than sin, and always the best option for making us truly, ultimately, and eternally happy.
Growing In Grace
There is a three-word description that summarizes what happens from the moment we put our faith in Jesus until the moment we come face-to-face with Him: grow in grace. We are not meant to stay the same or stand still, but to progress in our experience of grace for the rest of our lives. There are countless observations, implications and applications that flow from God’s grace to us, and we have the delightful duty of discovery. Day by day, we are to prize, prioritize and pursue intimacy with Jesus. For progress does not come from fixing ourselves, but fixing our eyes on Him. This is how we grow: we set out to know.
The Point Of Grace Is To Point Us To God
The goal of grace is to unite us to God so that He is honored in us and we are happy in Him. Grace makes it possible for us to personally know God and enjoy Him, along with all of the good gifts that He purposes to give us now and forever. He doesn’t give us what we think will make us happy; He gives us what He knows will make us happy … Himself. Because of the grace of God, we get the God of grace! Therefore, the point of grace is to point us to God, so that we will be satisfied by Him, and He will be glorified by us. God gets the eternal praise that He deserves, and we get the eternal pleasure that we don’t deserve.
To Receive Or Reject Grace
You will either receive the grace of God for your sin or the wrath of God for your sin. There is no third option. By nature and choice, we sin against God by regularly preferring things over Him and refusing to obey Him, which condemns us to hell. The only remedy is personally receiving the free forgiveness available by faith in what Jesus has done for us, which ushers us into heaven. You get to choose between continuing in sin and continuing with Jesus. Whether you embrace this as the best news ever or dismiss it as foolishness, this is true: You need grace and you can have grace. To reject it is to perish forever; to receive it is to have pleasure forever.
The Riches Of Grace Last Forever
For all who trust in Jesus, there is a glorious eternity ahead in which bad things will be eliminated, good things will be perfected, and the best things will be unveiled. We have an eternity with Him that… Never gets stale. Never gets boring. Never gets routine. Never gets unappealing. Never gets finished. There will always be more to discover and enjoy from the immeasurable riches of God’s grace towards us in Christ Jesus. Don’t live for this day; live for that day. Don’t be discouraged by this day; be encouraged by that day. Take hope in this every day: For those who are trusting in Jesus, the best is always yet to come.
Asking God For More Grace
You are not bothering God when you ask Him for more grace. He isn’t too busy or too disinterested. He doesn’t need to put something more important on hold to help you. Listen… There is no sin so big that God won’t forgive it and no sin so small that God will ignore it. There is no stronghold so powerful that God can’t break it and no stronghold so flimsy that God wants you to get free on your own. There is no problem so significant that God won’t handle it and no problem so petty that God doesn’t care about it. He does trillions of things at once in sustaining the universe. And one of His favorites is hearing from and helping you.
Transformed By Grace
We were made in God’s image to bring glory to Him, but we all sin and fall short of God’s glory which distorts His image in us. Jesus came to display the perfect image of God and glorify Him in ways we did not, and then die in our place to atone for our sin. When we put our faith in Him, He begins restoring the image of God in us so we can bring Him glory. This is what grace does for us: It takes people who don’t look and act much like God and transforms us into people who do. Undeserving sinners are remade into joy-filled, purpose-driven, difference-making, love-giving image-bearers of God. We are who we are because of grace.
