Month: March 2017
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Muddy Trucks & Muddy Lives
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Grace Works. Works Won’t.
Grace is the “unmerited favor of God”. Grace is powerful, audacious, and dangerous! If we ever choose to truly believe, receive, and give biblical grace free reign in our lives or in our churches, it would begin a rapid and radical transformation process.
Most of us, if we were completely honest, function as if God were stingy with His grace. We fear His blame and punishment. Yet, God already knows who did what and who’s to blame, and he still loves us anyway. His interest is in redeeming us, not in keeping us on the hook for our sins. That is grace.
Unfortunately, many Christians live their lives as if they are still on the hook, and as if they have to keep everyone else on the hook. We use weapons of the flesh; the sarcastic comment, the angry stare, the cold shoulder, the threat, etc, all designed to get people to straighten up and live right. God freely gives us grace, yet we tend to withhold grace from others.
Let’s consider the story of the woman at the well in John 4. This woman was living in sin. She had lived a rough life, made many bad choices, and to top it off she was a “Samarian”. Jewish people despised Samarians. Jesus spoke directly to her with full knowledge of her sin. Instead of looking at her with judgment, he demonstrated grace, forgiveness, and acceptance.
When she went back to her village, after meeting Jesus and says, “Come see a man who knows me inside and out.” Nothing is hidden from him, and yet he communicates with her in such a fashion that she leaves the well feeling loved and accepted. That’s grace.
Did she get away with her sins? No. They cost Jesus plenty, yet you don’t see him lording it over her, or putting a guilt trip on her, or even using the time for a lecture on ethics. Jesus trusts that once she is confronted with God’s generosity and His underserved grace, that she will be eager to change and conform to God’s commands.
It’s a classic Christian paradox, isn’t it? Just when you think it’s time to pull out the Law and read someone the riot act, Jesus shows by his behavior that it’s better to embrace that person with a costly love. And grace does cost. It obviously cost the Son of God everything, and for you to extend grace will cost you and I.
Walk in God’s grace this week. Understanding God’s grace is crucial to understanding who He is, how he loves us, and wants us to love others. Grace is a multi-faceted gift from God. Religion wants us to just keep the rules, but God’s grace will rush to the point of our need.
God’s grace is unlimited in its width, depth, scope, and power. Grace is God’s gift to you. It is His undeserved kindness, generosity, and favor. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Grace is a free gift that makes salvation possible. Grace works. Works won’t.
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Grace: Powerful, Audacious, & Dangerous
If you asked most Christians about the meaning of grace, they’d probably tell you it’s the “unmerited favor of God”. Not a bad answer, but one that’s just academic enough to keep you from staring straight into the face of grace. Grace is powerful, audacious, and dangerous! If grace ever got free reign in our lives or in our churches, it would begin a rapid and radical transformation.
A great illustration of grace is a scene from Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s timeless tale about a peasant who is sentenced to hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread. Released from jail, Jean Valjean is offered brief sanctuary in the home of a priest.
Despite being treated with dignity for the first time in years, Valjean steals the priest’s valuable silverware. To make matters worse, the clergyman catches Valjean in the act, but he escapes by beating the priest. The next day, the police brought Valjean back to the priest’s home, and laughingly say, “This man claims you gave him this silver.”
The priest immediately replies, “Why yes! There you are, my friend! You left so quickly that you forgot to take the candelabras that I gave you also.” He then disappears into his house and returns with silver candelabras, but as he hands them to Valjean, he whispers, “Don’t forget what your freedom has cost me. Now live your life accordingly.”
What a Christ-like moment! That scene also demonstrates the tremendous cost of grace, both for the giver and the receiver. Valjean goes on the live a life of grace, supporting the poor and adopting a young orphan who he must ransom out of servitude.
Do you suppose for a minute that a harsher approach by the priest could have gotten a better response from Jean Valjean? Then why do we expect people to behave better when we “Tsk, tsk, tsk” and shame them into behaving properly rather than modeling for them the kind of grace that will change them far more radically and permanently?
Grace allows people to make choices and assumes they’ll make the best choice. Grace is free and flowing and unencumbered by guilt or shame or fear, for true grace says, “I know all about you, and I still love you with a godly acceptance.”
Most of us, if we were completely honest, function as if God were stingy with His grace. We fear His punishment, in the sense that we think God is a school principal walking the halls, taking down names of who did what and who’s to blame? Yet, God already knows who did what and who’s to blame, and he still loves us anyway. His interest is in redeeming us, not in keeping us on the hook for our sins.
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Move Closer to Jesus
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Empowering Prayer: Ways 9-12
Ninth, make lists. Use lists of various topics to pray about, such as: a list you write of your personal needs, prayer lists you receive from your church or charities or missionaries that detail their current needs, and Bible verses you want to pray. Consider praying through your lists while taking a leisurely walk. After you pray through your lists, keep them for a while to remind you of what you’ve been praying and notice how God has answered.
Tenth, use your downtime. Make the most of the downtime you have each day, by praying in situations like: standing in line, waiting in a doctor’s or dentist’s office, sitting in traffic, waiting to be served in a restaurant, cleaning up after a meal, mowing the lawn or working in the garden, listening to music, trying to fall asleep, taking a bath or shower, sitting at the computer, watching your kids play, taking a walk, or watching television. View every moment of downtime you experience as an opportunity to pray.
Eleventh, just talk with God about whatever comes at you. Whenever life throws circumstances at you for which you’re not prepared, make prayer your first response to them. Instead of letting yourself become overwhelmed, wasting time and energy worrying, or trying to solve problems in your own limited strength, pray when you first encounter challenges to release God’s power into those situations right away.
Twelfth, ask, seek, and knock. If you’re asking God about something, frame your request in terms of biblical principles to make sure you’re asking according to His will. Seek the answer to your prayer by taking action after you ask. For example, if you’ve asked God to help you become more physically fit (which aligns with the biblical principle of taking care of the body He gave you), seek the answer to your prayer by exercising regularly.
Don’t just wait around for God to magically drop the answer in your lap without you doing anything that will move you closer to your goal. Keep knocking on God’s door persistently while you wait for Him to answer your prayers; don’t give up.
R.A.Torrey stated, “We live in a day characterized by the multiplication of man’s machinery and the diminishment of God’s power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, organize, organize, organize. But the great need of our day is prayer, more prayer and better prayer.”
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Empowering Prayer: Ways 5-8
Incorporating brief prayers into your daily life will put you in frequent contact with God, which will make your prayer life rich and full, no matter how busy you are. Scripture says we are to “pray without ceasing”. The only way to pray without ceasing is to develop an attitude and a mindset of prayer that causes you to communicate with God constantly throughout your day. Picking up where I left off last week, here are some more ways you can pray without ceasing as you go through your daily life.
The fifth way you can enhance your prayer life is, pay attention. Notice the abundance of opportunities you have to pray all around you, and make a habit of praying as you encounter various needs from people and situations in your life. Instead of just praying about what’s routinely on your mind, make time to pray every time you interact with someone who needs God’s touch or deal with something that could benefit from God’s intervention. Know that the more you pray, the more God will answer and work in the world. Seek to become a significant force for change in your community.
Sixth, listen for the Spirit’s prompting. Expect the Holy Spirit to nudge you to pray about people or situations you may never have thought of on your own. Whenever that happens, respond right then, praying while the need is fresh in your mind. Then enjoy watching how God answers your prayers.
Seventh, use information from the media. Whenever a news story catches your attention, talk to God about it. Remember that, while you probably don’t personally know the people involved, they’re real people in real situations that need God’s help. Intercede using the specific details you’ve learned from the news story, asking God to transform the people’s hearts and impact the situations according to His will. Rather than assuming you know the best outcome (such as in the case of a political election), simply pray for God’s will to be done. Be assured that by praying about world events, you’re tapping into real, unlimited power that can change the world for the better in powerful ways.
Eighth, shift your prayers. Get out of the rut of praying for the same old subjects over and over again. As you go through each day, deliberately shift from one topic to another so you can touch on a wide variety of subjects, like: family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, the government, the war on terror, people of other religions, your church, your small group, your city or county, your children’s teachers and classmates, your upcoming vacation, moral issues, upcoming legislation, and the criminal justice system. Be creative, exploring new ground as you pray.
Remember, prayer is a gift from God without substitute. Prayer in the hand of faith is the key to the immeasurable, unimaginable resources of God.