If we will dare to believe God, we will experience new levels of grace.
You do not experience new levels of grace or glory by laboring harder.
There’s this mentality that Christians have to press into God. I know
because I used to be one who “pressed in” and preached about it. Thank
God, the longer I have walked with Him, the more I have learned! If I
feel like I have to work harder to experience a greater grace, then I
have lost the true definition of it.
Experiencing a greater grace comes one way: a greater “willingness” on my part. That’s it! There has to be a more complete yielding. It is not the result of my pressing in harder; it is the result of my “letting go.” A greater measure of grace will be experienced in my life as I have a greater willingness to follow and to let go.
I’m not advocating that you should minimize your work for the Kingdom of God or become slack in providing sustenance. I believe in work, but I believe in grace even more! We can obtain the blessing of God through grace. I also believe that the slothful, lazy hand will lead to poverty; the diligent hand will be fruitful.
However, when we’re talking about experiencing a greater grace, we need to go back to the first principles. How were we saved? We were saved by grace and not by works lest anyone should boast. We don’t experience a greater grace because we’ve served God for a long time, worked harder, or spit and sweat more. We may try to cry out, pray in tongues, or scream and stomp. Noooo! See, many folks who think that deceive themselves. They believe they’re receiving a greater grace based upon their own efforts. As mentioned previously, that belief defies the definition of grace.
We will experience a greater grace as we demonstrate a greater willingness to follow. Jesus’ commands were very cut and clear that in order to follow, it’s going to require something of us. What it requires is letting go of that which is old in order to grab hold of something that is new. It requires leaving where we are in order to get to where God wants us to be.
We’re going to have to exit where we are in order to enter where we’re going. How we exit oftentimes determines how we enter. As one who’s been involved in church life for a number of years and in pastoral ministry for over twenty-five years, I’ve discovered more about people’s character in how they left than how they came in. How we leave or exit oftentimes determines how we enter.
We could apply this to relationships. Let’s say you’re single, not married, and you were engaged to someone, and it gets called off. Your heart was broken (even though maybe you kept the ring). If you’re not careful, your heart could get hardened and become closed. You might say, “I will never let another man into my heart again.” I’m just using that as an example.
Some people have a bad relationship with their earthly father. They might have had an abusive, hard, alcoholic parent who beat them and didn’t treat them right and know how to love, etc. As a result, when the “injured” individual enters into a relationship with God the Father, it may seem difficult to develop a deep trust because they could never trust their earthly dad.
Another example of exiting and entering might include going to church on any given Sunday. You may even fight all the way there, but once you step over that threshold, the holy smile and attitude comes on. All the while, there may be an undercurrent of, “All Hades is going to break loose when we get back in that car, honey. Isn’t God good? Hallelujah.” Then we resume the “discussion” when we get back in the car.
Considering all of the things that we’ve looked at today, let’s determine to be decisive in making some changes for the start of this new year. Hopefully, we will make a decision to leave some things in the past in order to enter into a more glorious, grace-filled future. That part of it is up to us!
Grace and peace,
pg
Experiencing a greater grace comes one way: a greater “willingness” on my part. That’s it! There has to be a more complete yielding. It is not the result of my pressing in harder; it is the result of my “letting go.” A greater measure of grace will be experienced in my life as I have a greater willingness to follow and to let go.
I’m not advocating that you should minimize your work for the Kingdom of God or become slack in providing sustenance. I believe in work, but I believe in grace even more! We can obtain the blessing of God through grace. I also believe that the slothful, lazy hand will lead to poverty; the diligent hand will be fruitful.
However, when we’re talking about experiencing a greater grace, we need to go back to the first principles. How were we saved? We were saved by grace and not by works lest anyone should boast. We don’t experience a greater grace because we’ve served God for a long time, worked harder, or spit and sweat more. We may try to cry out, pray in tongues, or scream and stomp. Noooo! See, many folks who think that deceive themselves. They believe they’re receiving a greater grace based upon their own efforts. As mentioned previously, that belief defies the definition of grace.
We will experience a greater grace as we demonstrate a greater willingness to follow. Jesus’ commands were very cut and clear that in order to follow, it’s going to require something of us. What it requires is letting go of that which is old in order to grab hold of something that is new. It requires leaving where we are in order to get to where God wants us to be.
We’re going to have to exit where we are in order to enter where we’re going. How we exit oftentimes determines how we enter. As one who’s been involved in church life for a number of years and in pastoral ministry for over twenty-five years, I’ve discovered more about people’s character in how they left than how they came in. How we leave or exit oftentimes determines how we enter.
We could apply this to relationships. Let’s say you’re single, not married, and you were engaged to someone, and it gets called off. Your heart was broken (even though maybe you kept the ring). If you’re not careful, your heart could get hardened and become closed. You might say, “I will never let another man into my heart again.” I’m just using that as an example.
Some people have a bad relationship with their earthly father. They might have had an abusive, hard, alcoholic parent who beat them and didn’t treat them right and know how to love, etc. As a result, when the “injured” individual enters into a relationship with God the Father, it may seem difficult to develop a deep trust because they could never trust their earthly dad.
Another example of exiting and entering might include going to church on any given Sunday. You may even fight all the way there, but once you step over that threshold, the holy smile and attitude comes on. All the while, there may be an undercurrent of, “All Hades is going to break loose when we get back in that car, honey. Isn’t God good? Hallelujah.” Then we resume the “discussion” when we get back in the car.
Considering all of the things that we’ve looked at today, let’s determine to be decisive in making some changes for the start of this new year. Hopefully, we will make a decision to leave some things in the past in order to enter into a more glorious, grace-filled future. That part of it is up to us!
Grace and peace,
pg
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