Enduring Grace

September 12, 2014

“…we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand..” (Romans 5:2)

Paul writes that God has given us access, by faith, to a quality of grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ in this world, and live lives that glorify God. Then he writes that we should rejoice in our suffering, because God sometimes uses our suffering to force us to access that grace.

How must God feel when He sees us struggling in our own strength to live as we should, knowing He has provided us with a way to access all the grace we need? We are to rejoice when God uses suffering to make us an offer we cannot refuse that drives us into His grace.

There are levels and degrees of suffering we simply cannot endure without the grace of God. When our suffering drives us beyond the limits of any human resources we have within ourselves, these times of severe testing become God’s opportunity to provide and prove His grace to us.  A devout hymn writer expressed that truth this way:

“When we come to the end of our store of endurance.
When our strength has failed and the day is half done.
When we have exhausted our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun.

“His love has no limit. His grace has no measure.
His power has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite wisdom and mercy
He gives and He gives and He gives yet again.”

According to Paul, it is the love of God that sometimes uses our suffering to force us to access the grace he prescribed in Romans 5:2 and in the great verse about grace in 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Are you willing to let the problems you cannot solve and suffering you cannot endure drive you to access the amazing grace of God today?

Dick Woodward, 23 October 2009

Editor’s Note:  If you would like to learn more about the hymn, “He Giveth More Grace,” by Annie Johnson Flint, click here to read her inspiring story.

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Misery Loves Company

August 15, 2014

“For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2Corinthians 2:2)

You can’t control the weather or rainy days but you can control the emotional climate that surrounds you. There is a principle in a relationship that tells us communication is a two-way street.  Whatever you send down that street comes back up that street and into your relationship with another person.

That is what the Apostle Paul is teaching when he essentially writes “If I say things that get you down who is going to build me up or pull me up?”  The reality is that you are probably going to pull me down because misery loves company.  This is a negative way of stating a positive truth.  That truth is if I say things to you that build you up, I have equipped you to build me up.

In another place Paul wrote: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)

In every relationship you have, with your spouse, your children, your parents, those you work with, those you work for, and those who work for you  – make the commitment to say and do things that build them up and minister the grace of God to them.  You will be surprised by joy to discover that what you send down that street will come back up that street and into your relationship with that person.

Jesus gave an unstable man named Simon the nickname Peter, which meant stable like a rock.  After calling Peter ‘a rock’ for three years Peter was like a rock. Try that in your relationships and see what happens.

Dick Woodward, 29 June 2010

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ABOUNDING GRACE

June 20, 2014

“… God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV)

I once heard Dr. A.W. Tozer preach on this text. After he read the verse with much inflection, he paused, shook his head and said, “Sometimes you cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament!” Of course, he went on to explain that God has not oversold the product. We tend to undersell the product because our access into God’s abounding grace is flawed.

Think of this with me for a moment. God is able to make all grace, (not just some grace), abound toward us, (not just trickle in our direction), that we, (he repeats that for emphasis meaning it’s not just for pastors or missionaries, but for every believer), always, (not just sometimes), may have all sufficiency, (not just some sufficiency), in all things, (not just some things), may abound, (not just go limping), unto every good work, (not just the ones we like.)

Once you have meditated on this verse a few times ask yourself this question, “True or false?”

If we answer that question as we should by saying it’s true, should that not give us the courage to tackle the things God is leading us to do that we know we cannot do? Are you doing anything that can only be explained by the supernatural reality that He is, only He can, and He did because you accessed His abounding grace?

Dick Woodward, 16 March 2010

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A Marvelous Salutation

February 24, 2012

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ… The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”       (Romans 1:7; 16:24)

The great Apostle Paul begins his letter to the believers in Rome with a marvelous greeting: “Grace to you.”  He then closes his letter with the prayer that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them.

Paul dictated all his letters but one to a stenographer.  At the close of each of his letters he took the writing instrument from the scribe and in his own hand wrote these words: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

Paul greets and leaves believers with a wish and a prayer for grace.  This is because grace is the dynamic of God that saves us.  We can define grace if we turn this five letter word into an acrostic and use each letter of the word to spell out:

“God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”

But grace is not only the way God saves us.  The grace of God is the dynamic we desperately need to live for Christ.

In the second verse of the fifth chapter of this same letter Paul writes that God has given us access, by faith, into the grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ and live a life that glorifies God.

Paul begins this letter and closes all his letters the way he does because he knows it is absolutely critical that we access the grace God has made available to us if we are to live our life for Him in this world.

Since grace is always our greatest need, consider meeting and leaving your fellow believers with a wish and a prayer for grace.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Great Dynamic

February 10, 2012

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.”     (2 Corinthians 9:8)

The mercy of God withholds from us what we deserve and the grace of God bestows on us all kinds of wonderful blessings we do not deserve.  Grace is also the dynamic we must receive from God to do what He calls and leads us to do.  This is the most superlative verse about grace in the Bible.

It tells us that God is able to make all grace, not just some grace, abound toward us and not just trickle in our direction.  Then we may have all sufficiency, not just some sufficiency in all things, not just some things.  We are then equipped to abound, not just do our duty, as we do every good work He leads us to do, and not just the works we like to do, ALWAYS!

Twice in this verse Paul emphasizes the reality that this grace is for you – not just for the pastor or the missionary – but you!  Is this grace a reality in your journey of faith?

I once heard Dr. A. W. Tozer preach on this verse.  After he read the verse there was an eloquent pause and then he said, “Sometimes you cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament!” He then preached a powerful message challenging us to believe that God has not oversold His grace but we need to learn how to access His grace.

The hymn writer wrote, “The favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for those who will trust and obey…”

That is a good place to start.

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