Unmerited Favor-Grace

..."Peace be with you!"

John 20:19

How would you respond to a group of people if you were their leader and you poured your life into them, teaching them all you know for three years, only to have them disband and go their own way when troubles came?

What would you say to them after you were reunited for the first time?

Perhaps you might scold them or you might cite each one's offense. At the least, you might shame them for their lack of faithfulness and courage.

After Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, He appeared to the disciples. His first words to them were, "Peace be with you!" The word grace means unmerited favor. When someone loves you unconditionally, without regard to your behavior in return, it becomes a powerful force in your life. Such was the case for the disciples when Jesus appeared to them. They could have expected reprimand. Instead, they received unconditional love and acceptance. It was evident that Jesus was overjoyed to see them and they were equally overjoyed to see Him.

Jesus understood that the disciples needed to fail Him as part of their training, as their failure became their greatest motivation to draw closer to Him. Failure allowed them to experience incredible grace for the very first time, this Grace would transform them as human beings.

Have you experienced this grace in your life?

Have you extended grace to those in your life?

The grace you extend may change their lives—and yours.

Duty Or Delight

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

 

1 Samuel 15:22

 

 

Duty is something we must do, often with a sigh. Delight, on the other hand, is something that we get to do, producing in us great joy and exuberance.

 

How can discipline be transformed into delight?

 

Only by understanding the purpose behind the directives of spiritual discipline.

 

 

Disciplines are designed with you in mind – God's highest goal for each of us is to become conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Disciplines direct us to a personal and first hand relationship with Jesus so that we can come to a full knowledge of who He is. Knowing Him is the first step in becoming like Him.

 

Disciplines equip us to run the race – Every Christian is called to run a race. Imagine receiving an invitation to participate in a physical race, a long distance marathon, without having any training or practice—fear would immobilize us. Spiritual disciplines equip us so that we are not only able to run the race but win the race.

 

Disciplines are a matter of training not trying – Scripture instructs us to "train ourselves in godliness." In The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg says "...trying hard can only accomplish so much. If you are serious about seizing the opportunity of a lifetime, you will have to enter into a life of training. Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely." We train wisely through practicing spiritual disciplines.

 

Disciplines are not a means or way to earn God's favor – It is not about winning God's nod of approval and assuming we need to win His approval. Disciplines do not earn us extra credit from God. We simply do not need "extra credit" because we have complete grace.

 

Disciplines turn our attention back towards God – Though we have God's full attention, ours often wanes away in another direction. Disciplines train us to turn our attention to Him. When One of the first things we learn when engaging in sailing, is how to adjust the sail, controlling the direction of the boat—this is to prevent one from drifting too far offshore. When we drift away from God, we must adjust our sails, bringing us back to the safety of His presence. Spiritual disciplines, through the wind of the Holy Spirit, adjust our sails so that we stay on course.

 

Disciplines should be seen as spiritual food – Viewing them as a menu and not a recipe. We choose from the menu according to our present spiritual state of hunger rather than attempting to partake of the entire selection at one sitting.

 

For instance, are you struggling with a lack of rest? Select from the menu "Sanctuary" and practice sitting before Him in silence, stillness, and solitude.

 

Hungry to hear His voice? Select "His Word" and dig in!

 

Suffering with a sense of discontentment. Choose "Gratitude" and begin to praise Him for his sufficiency.

 

Disciplines are the tools that train us and mature us to live our lives empowered by God. We arrange our lives around certain Biblical practices or disciplines that will enable us to do under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit that which we cannot do with mere willpower. John Ortberg describes a disciplined person as "one who can do the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right spirit." This is not merely a person who exercises many disciplines—this would describe the Pharisees. Rather, a disciplined follower of Jesus is one who is willingly and openly allowing God to change Him through the tool of spiritual disciplines.

 

Duty or delight—what will it be?

 

Discipline without direction is drudgery, but discipline with direction is pure delight.

 

Understanding the directives above should redirect your reason for practicing any spiritual discipline, enabling them to become not a duty but a sheer delight.

When God Calls

Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.

 

Acts 9:8a

When God calls us into service, there is often much travail. There are many examples where God makes His presence known through circumstances that tax the individual to his very soul.


Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were thrown into the fiery furnace.

Consider Daniel, who was thrown into the lions' den.

 

Consider Peter; when he denied Jesus before the crucifixion, he was in total despair.

Consider Paul, who was stricken blind on the Damascus road.

It may seem strange to us that God uses such incredible adversity to prepare His servants for greater service, but this is God's way. God knows that the human heart is incapable of voluntarily stepping into situations that take us beyond our comfort zone.

 

 

God intentionally brings us into hard places to prove us and to drive us deeper into the soil of His grace.

In arid regions of the world, trees cannot survive unless their roots grow deeper to where the water table can be found. Once they reach the water, these trees become stronger than any tree that can be found in tropical climates. Their root systems ensure that they can withstand any storm.

 

 

In the same way, God brings us into extremely difficult situations in order to prove His power and drive our spiritual roots deeper.

God may take us through times when we will question His love for us. In such times, we must cling to Him so that we continue to move by faith and not by sight as we see His purposes in it—we should not throw away our confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

We need to persevere so that when we have done the will of God, we will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But My righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him" (Hebrews 10:36-38).

 

Press On

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 

Philippians 3:13b-14

Our past can be a hindrance or a help in moving toward God's purposes for each of us. For some, the past has meant pain and heartache, and grace is required so that we do not let our past harden our hearts or dictate our responses to the future. If we allow our past to make us a victim, then we have not entered into the grace that God has for us.

 

If we live on memories of past successes and fail to raise our vision for new things, we again are victims of our past.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland" (Isaiah 43:19). Our past should only be viewed for what we can learn from it. We must move forward and avoid viewing the negative or the positive for more than what we can learn and what the Spirit is showing us.

 

God is always about doing new things in our lives and He gives fresh revelation of His purposes in our lives that He longs for us to embrace and walk in NOW.

 

It is important to not hold onto bitterness that may hinder God from doing new and exciting things in your life, even if the past is as close as yesterday and you are still dwelling on it or allowing the pain to grip your heart and keep you from moving forward—He turns our wastelands into streams of water to give life, not death.

How have you viewed your past?

 

Has it hindered you in some areas of your life?

 

Have you relied on past good or bad to dictate what you will do in the future?

 

Put aside such thoughts and allow God to do a new thing in your life and ask Him to help you see the new things He wants to do in and through you.

Sometimes...

Sometimes life is like a rollercoaster and we get caught up just surviving from day to day… it doesn't matter what life may bring as long as our heart is truly fixed on God, because He gives us love, hope, freedom, and strength as we serve at His feet.

Blameless

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

 

Psalm 84:11

What does it really mean to be a person who is blameless before God?

 

Being blameless before God does not mean we are perfect—no human being is perfect. It means that we so fully trust in God that we are willing to make things right when we fail. We are willing to humble ourselves continually before the throne of God.

 

 "...Blessed is the man who trusts in You" (Psalm 84:12).

 

God has a specific plan for those who fully trust in Him and He promises to be their shield, to bestow honor on them—He will not withhold any good thing from them.

 

What a promise… what motivation to be all that we can be in God by the empowering Spirit from within us.

Live life as God views it—blameless!

 

I pray that God would make known to us that we do live lives that are blameless before Him, as we seek to dig deeper into the great things that He has in store for us.

 

The Faithfulness Of God Even In Hard Times

 

The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

 

Psalm 145:13b-14

Have you ever had a relationship with someone who was faithful?

 

You knew you could depend on that person completely and totally no matter what, regardless of the level of involvement that you contributed. You learned that they truly meant what they said and did—completely faithful.

 

God is that and so much more. In fact, He is faithful to fulfill every promise in His Word. Sometimes we think God isn't faithful because it appears He has not fulfilled a desire that we have. Sometimes we think He is not faithful because of hard times that seem to say Hr isn't faithful.

The Bible is full of accounts of God's faithfulness that was often accompanied by hard times:

 

• He brought Joseph out of slavery to be greatly used in a nation.
• He delivered the people from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land.
• He delivered David from his enemies and made him a king.

In story upon story, we learn of God's faithfulness.

God is faithful in all seasons and most of all during our hard times. Take an inventory of your life and ask God if you have been faithful with what He has entrusted to you—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and financially.

 

Right before our eyes we see God's faithfulness come through, especially in our greatest weakness—trust Him with all areas of your life and be prepared for great things!

Reflecting

 

They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.

 

Psalm 145:11-12

How do you measure your effectiveness in God, or should we even be thinking like this?

 

The early Church turned the world upside down in the first century, but what made them so effective?

 

Was it their theology?

 

Was it great preaching?

 

Was it great outpouring?

 

Was it great worship?

The Scriptures are clear as to what made the early Church effective, which is at the core of God's heart, and it is quite simple—God desires to reflect His nature and power through every individual. When this happens, the world is automatically changed because those who reflect His glory affect the world.

We serve a jealous God and He is a God who will not share His glory with anyone. God demonstrate His power through us and this is something He has done this since the day He created man. His desire is to reflect His glory through us, so that all may know of His mighty acts and the glorious splendor of His Kingdom.

The apostle Paul understood this principle: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

If you do not see His glory being reflected through your life, then you need to ask why. He has promised to do so if we will walk in obedience to His ways through the leading of the Spirit.

 

Waiting On God

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

 

Isaiah 30:18

Have you ever noticed that God is not in a hurry?

 

It took 40 years for Moses to receive his commission to lead the people out of Egypt.

It took 17 years of preparation before Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment.

It took 20 years before Jacob was released from Laban's control.

It took many years before Abraham and Sarah when finally received the son of promise, Isaac.

 

So why isn't God in a hurry?

God called each of these individuals to accomplish a certain task in His Kingdom, yet He was in no hurry to bring their mission into fulfillment.

 

We must first notice that, God accomplished what He wanted in them. We are often more focused on outcome than the process that He is accomplishing in our lives each day. When we experience His presence daily, one day we wake up and realize that God has done something special in and through our lives.

 

However, the accomplishment is no longer what excites us.

 

Instead, what excites us is knowing Him.

 

Through those times, we become more acquainted with His love, grace, and power in our lives. When this happens, we are no longer focused on the outcome because the outcome is a result of our walk with Him.

 

It is not the goal of our walk, but the by-product.

 

Hence, when Joseph came to power in Egypt, he probably couldn't have cared less. He had come to a place of complete surrender so that he was not anxious about tomorrow or his

circumstances.

This is the lesson for us.

 

We must wait for God's timing and embrace wherever we are in the process. When we find contentment in that place, we begin to experience God in ways we never thought possible.

Work Up A Soul Sweat

Train yourself in godliness

 

1Timothy 4:7

 

 

If the gym is a training ground for physical discipline, then perhaps you can learn something from it about training your soul. The word translated discipline in the Bible actually comes from the Greek gymnaze, meaning to train or discipline. From it we get the word gymnasium. The apostle Paul, a spiritual gym rat if ever there was one, instructed Timothy, "Train yourself in godliness" (1Timothy 4:7).

 

Do Cardio Work First

How do you work up a good soul sweat?

 

We first have to deal with the heart of the matter, in the gym and in soul matters—cardiovascular training is a vital aspect of a physical workout. Keeping the heart strong enables the vitality of the other organs and gives strength to work the rest of the body.

 

We must be wary of natural heart disease; even the redeemed heart has an inclination toward sin. Our hearts need to be strengthened by grace and this discipline requires looking inward. The Pharisees looked on the outward; they can be categorized as those in the gym who are looking in the mirror all the time. But spiritual health is not about how you look religiously, but about how freely—and thus powerfully—we allow God to flow through you. Christ can't flow through us into the world if our heart is clogged with spiritual plaque.

 

We get our heart in good condition by examining the heart of God in contrast to our own. This requires that we know the heart of God but also that we acknowledge that our own hearts are unfit. To get at the core of it is to understand who God is and to understand the depths of our own need.

 

It is a similar approach to how people who handle large sums of cash learn to spot counterfeit money—by intensely observing the real thing. We must learn about the heart of God in order to understand how to help our heart get into shape.

 

And how do we know when a change is taking place?

 

None other than the spiritual "treadmill test" for the heart is the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).

 

Strengthen The Core

Any athlete will tell us that the core (abs and back) is the ultimate source of strength. The core of spiritual discipline is the Word of God—Scripture alone is our fitness training manual.

 

We are able to maintain sold workouts and change up our routines from time to time as we gain instruction and wisdom from the fitness training manual—the Word of God.

 

Repetition is important to a physical workout. Equally, repetitious review of Scriptures will burn them into our mind and give us a sound core from which to live out the rest of the spiritual disciplines.

 

Strive for a Balanced Workout

Balance is vital to a good workout.

 

Imagine a man leaving the gym with remarkably large biceps. He can do single bicep curls with 50 lb free weights, but his stomach is fat, his legs spindly, and he huffs and puffs just trying to walk to his car. He would be a physical freak, an unbalanced man who had done nothing in the gym but work his biceps.

 

Consider the greatest spiritual influencers we have known, the people who reflected Christ the most. Although they possessed individual strengths, they were not one-dimensional.

 

As we consider a spiritual workout, give attention to a variety of areas: Bible study, life application, prayer, worship, evangelism and service, stewardship of time and money, silence and solitude, and journaling.

 

Our purpose in exercising our soul is not to live feeling better about ourselves—though that may be an acceptable by-product. Our purpose is to live stronger, more fit, and wonderfully conditioned to go into the world and do the work God has called us to.

Inner Healing

Then Jesus said, "Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly and the burden I give you is light"

Matthew 11:28-29

 

Because God is gentle and long-suffering He will allow us to get to a point where we recognize that the burdens we are carrying are too heavy for us and that we can no longer try to carry them on our own because our lives are being crushed beneath the load. He patiently waits for us to call out to Him for help.

How long will it take?

God knows the season, the time, and the circumstance that will get us to this place where we recognize our need and allow Him to pick up the pieces and restore us into the men and women that He has designed and created us to be.

We are all born with imperfections and this is apart of the consequences of living in a fallen world, which begin to affect us even before we are born. God can heal anything, but He often uses our weaknesses to develop our trust and reliance upon Him as well as our character.

The need for medication is not a sign of failure or a lack of faith, as some may think. Ever since Adam and Eve fell, there have been defects in humans. For example, when you get an inner ear infection you will take the proper precautions and care for the ear in order for it to get better—complete inner healing. And at times along with the body amazingly working to bring restoration to itself, medication is need it so that the ear is fully restored.

God works healing in us as long as we surrender to Him in obedience and stop complicating our lives with the consequences of additional sin. In His grace and mercy, God speaks tenderly to our hearts and develops a Christ-like character in us. And it is through His death, burial and resurrection that we are set free from sin and able to enjoy restored fellowship near the Father's heart.

We see in Romans 8:29 that we are to becoming more Christ-like—in our thoughts, feelings, motives, and actions. This will take willingness and effort on our part, coupled with the abiding power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us along the way. And don't forget that …in an abundance of counselors there is victory and safety (Proverbs 24:6). So be open and humble enough to ask specialists in various fields for help. And most importantly, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to the right help at the right time to arrive at inner healing.

Waiting For The Lord

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

 

Psalm 27:14

Hearing and doing God's will are two important steps that often get confused as one step—these are two distinct processes. When we hear God's voice, this is only half of the process. The next important step is to know when to move. It is one thing to hear; it is another to know when to act.

There was a time when God showed a man that he was to write. This was a major change in his life from what he was doing. As he began to write, he enjoyed it even though at times he just rather not even begin to put his words down on paper.  

Finally, one day he decided to write for the purpose of publishing his writings and thus he begin to write and write. Then he realized he would need to find a publisher to publish his writings. Now this was a frustrating task and he became irritated by all the delays he began to experience.

 

Then a good friend asked one day, "How is the writing coming along and have you found a publisher yet?"

"No," was the reply.

The friend went on to say that, "When you complete the book, God will provide a publisher if He has called you to write the book and it is to be published, but you need to complete the task that He has called you to before stepping ahead."

A few months later the man was in a discussion with a publisher about his work and had set up a time to meet in order to discuss the publishing of his book. The day they met they offered him a contract on his book, which happened to also be the exact day that he had completed the book.

God is always on time and He is never late, and He is seldom early… ask God for the wisdom to discern His will and His timing for the events of the journey ahead.

 

And here is a true story that makes clear that all things are best left in God's timing regardless of what has been spoken or what we envision is on the horizon:

 

Corrie ten Boom was a prisoner in the German Holocaust who lost her sister in the concentration camps; and she tells a story about her father taking her on trains. She always wanted to get the ticket from her father ahead of time. He never gave her the ticket until she was about to get onto the train—the same goes for us as God's timing is best in all manners of our lives.

Desperation

Now Nahash the Ammonite came up and besieged Jabesh-gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a covenant with us and we will serve you." But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "I will make it with you on this condition, that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, thus I will make it a reproach on all Israel.

 

1 Samuel 11:1-2

 

 

 

Nahash was simply toying with the Israelites emotions. He knew they were desperate, confused and disorganized and thus offered this ridiculous ultimatum—"I will make a deal with you on one condition; you will allow me to gouge out the right eye of every man." It was an outlandish and unreasonable proposal, but it was accepted by the elders of the city—leaders who were looked upon as tutors of wisdom—yet here collapsed under the pressures of desperation. From their perspective, their options had run dry.

 

They were desperate people living in desperate times, making desperate decisions.

Desperation often occurs when we feel as if we've run out of options—when we find ourselves painted into that proverbial corner with no way out. Under such circumstances even the most ridiculous can sound reasonable.

Desperate times often demand desperate decisions and at times decisions that are unwise, which can risk the lives and safety of others, especially if decisions are based on circumstances of the moment and give no thought to the future.

 

We need to make sure that we avoid this vortex of desperation in all areas of our life.

 

When life seems to lead to nowhere but a dead end, desperation has a tendency to pull us into its downward spiral of confusion if we let it. Decisions that we must make for life cannot be made in desperation. If desperation breeds where options have gone dry, then we must, in all our decisions never stop seeking options and consider all viable alternatives that will allow us to achieve the godly goals for what God has in store. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to resign to the perception that our options have run out, otherwise we become open game to the enemy who will toy with our emotions, as Nahash did with the Israelites, and we will soon find ourselves agreeing to the ridiculous, rather than the reasonable.