GRACE

   

"Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And, therefore, He wants on high to have compassion on you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him" (Isaiah 30:18).

As a child growing up, when they referred to ‘grace’ in our church, I thought they were talking of Grace Pearson, the lady who lived up in Juniata Gap and was the founder and head of the Ladies Benevolent Society in our church.

 It was not until later years in my walk with the Lord that I learned that Grace is the merciful kindness of God.  I also learned that without grace we cannot know God. God's working in us cannot be learned.  It is unconditional love that comes only in gift form. 

We are more than recipients of grace.  We are vessels of grace.  In a recent message our pastor used the example of a glass of cola, the cola coming from his can to the glass and then passing the glass on to someone else to enjoy.   The message: we are born again to share God's  message and be a blessing to all with whom we come in contact.

So the question - what next.  What happens when we are filled with grace and equipped for action?   In 2 Corinthians 6:1-4 Paul give us this instruction, "But in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distress.  But key to distress is verse one.  "Working together with Him".  In other words do not receive the gift of grace in vain.  We need to understand grace is an action word - as Bernie would say, "use it or lose it.  Share it! Pour it out of your inner most being.  Become ambassadors, bond servants, be willing to lay down your life for someone in need.

 One can only spend so much time in the locker room preparing without putting that preparation into action.  You may be the greatest quarterback in the world but if you don't come out of the locker room and show the world what a great arm you have, it is all for naught.   If you remain in a non-action mode, it is only a matter of time until your talents will begin to atrophy.

The question is, will you be like Jeremiah and Moses and give a long listing of all your weaknesses and other such reasons that would prevent you from being a giver of grace?   The Good News is God is not all that concerned about our weaknesses and even our lack of faith.  In Matthew 28 we find the disciples were not great examples of faith.  In verse 17, we find that some of the disciples were even doubtful.

Jesus had to remind them "all authority has been given me in heaven and earth" (v.13).  Throughout the Word we find many stories of folks, even leaders, who have demonstrated a lack of faith.

Scripture tells us that those who were the power brokers/kings of their day surrounded themselves with men of faith to cover their lack of faith.    Many who were faced with battle called on the priest to come and give a blessing or have the Ark of the Covenant brought to the battle lines. Might be good advice for the power brokers of our day.

Soooo, My point in this epistle is, If God calls us to do something for Him, no matter how difficult it may seem, even if it is beyond our abilities as we see it, He will walk us through the experience and equip us for the task (Eph 4:12).  I am certainly living proof of that!  God will use us in spite our lack of confidence in self and faith.  The key to success is not in our ability but in our willingness to surrender all of our assets to the Lord to mold us into the vessel He has chosen to complete the task.  Keep in mind God often chooses broken vessels and smashes them and then molds them into a usable vessel. 

Blessings,

Gramps