grace

"As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain." - 2 Corinthians 6:1

 

It was in a recent Bible Study that we stumbled across this verse, and in typical fashion for our group, spent several minutes discussing the message that was embedded in these few short words.  At the heart of our discussion was the question 'What does it mean to take God's grace in vain?'

Answers varied around the table.  However, most all agreed that far too often we, even today, have those times (or days) in our lives when, although we claim we are saved by the grace of God and that Jesus died to forgive our sins, we still live and wallow around in the muck and mire of self-defeat, rejection, and guilt.  It's as if we forget that we are saved by God's grace through the sacrifice of His Son and instead of living our lives filled with joy and assurance, we instead live our lives dictated by our failures and our shortcomings.  Just what the devil wants us to do; to take our minds off of the grace that we have received and live in bondage of our fears, where he resides and manipulates. One pastor calls this being "sin-conscious" rather than "Christ-conscious".

Let's remember that we are saved by God's grace and that we are forgiven and stand today as wonderful children of God! 

 

Let's put on the full armor of God and show the devil that if he wants to mess with us, he's going to have to go through Jesus to get to us... something he's already tried and failed to do! 

 

Let's live this day not taking that precious grace for granted, but receive that gift and let it empower us to a new and wonderful day that God has in store for us. 

 

Let's take that grace off of the shelf and receive it like it is meant to be received!

It's going to be a great day because I know, from experience, that "greater is He who is in me that he who is in the world."