LEADING THE LIFE OF GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY AUGUST 11, 2022.

SUBJECT:  LEADING THE LIFE OF GRACE!

Memory verse:  "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1 vs 6.) 

READ:  Matthew 11 vs 28 - 30:

11:28: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

11:29: Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

11:30: For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

INTIMATION:

God began a good work in us by His grace. God’s work began when Christ died on the cross in our place. His work in us began when we first believed, and continues throughout our lifetime and will finish when we meet Christ face to face on His return. Now the Holy Spirit lives in us, enabling us to be more like Christ everyday. 

When God starts a project, He completes it! He will help you grow in grace until He has completed His work in your life. When you are discouraged, remember that God won’t give up on you. He promises to finish the work He has started. In your shortcomings always remember God’s promise and provision. Don’t let your present condition rob you of the joy of knowing Christ or keep you from growing closer to Him.

Do you sometimes feel as though you aren’t making progress in your spiritual life? Are you struggling with changes that need to be made in your personality? Do you ever get frustrated and confused, trying to believe and have faith and confess and do all the right things to bring about change in yourself and your life, yet it never seems to happen? You wanted to change everything you saw wrong about yourself and life, but for some reason you just couldn't do it. Most believers will blame the devil. They will spend better part of their time binding and casting the devil away, instead of turning to the Lord for help. 

Now, let us consider what the apostle Paul told the believers in Galatia, "This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith” (Galatians 3 vs 2 - 5.)

The apostle Paul asked the Galatian believers, "Did you receive the Spirit of the Lord through your own works and efforts, or by hearing the gospel message and saying, 'I believe that?'" "Are you really so foolish and senseless and silly as to begin your new life by the Spirit and then try to reach perfection by depending on your own weak human flesh?" Then finally he concluded by asking them, "Does God supply your every need and work miracles among you because you keep the law perfectly or because you put your entire faith and trust in the message you heard?"

They received the Lord by faith, but were trying to perfect themselves by depending on their own flesh, trying to change themselves and their lives by human effort rather than by trusting in Him. God has begun His good work in us. and He is going to finish it. He is working within us right now, developing, perfecting and bringing to completion the good work which He initiated. Since He is the only One Who can do that, you and I can relax. The pressure is off us, because the work is the Lord's, not ours. While we relax, we must do our part, and our part is to believe in Him, and love Him. And if we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14 vs 31). 

Jesus frees us from our heavy burdens of sin, oppression of the devil, persecution, and weariness in the search for God. He promises us rest, and the rest He promises is love, healing, and peace with God. He brings us into a relationship with God that changes our meaningless, worrisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose. Jesus has said His yoke is easy. The yoke emphasizes the challenges, work, and difficulties of partnering with Christ in life. Though responsibilities weigh us down, even our effort of staying true to God, but Jesus’ partnership remains the best and easy way out, compared to the crushing alternatives of our personal struggles.

Prayer: Abba Father, Your faithfulness never seizes, even in our unfaithfulness. You have promised to be with us till the end of age. I crave for Your leading in every step and area of my life. Endue me with the spirit of complete trust and obedience to You, and may Your grace abound with me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

GOD’S PLAN CARRIES HIS GRACE!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10, 2022.

SUBJECT:  GOD’S PLAN CARRIES HIS GRACE!

Memory verse:  "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2 vs 40.) 

READ:  Ephesians 1 vs 7 - 8:

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

1:9: having made known to us the mystery of His Will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

INTIMATION:

God is so rich in grace—His voluntary, loving and unmerited favor given to those He saves. All of God’s plan carries His grace. Our redemption and forgiveness of sins are in accordance with God’s Will, and backed up by the riches of His grace. The same grace was upon Jesus Christ, backing Him up in His earth walk, and the sacrifice He made for the sins of the world.

It is hard for us to enjoy life if we don't have assurance about today, peace about yesterday and confidence about tomorrow. Why is it so? It is because as long as we live we will always have to face situations for which we don't have all the answers. If we don't have something going on in our lives that we can't handle, we wouldn't need God, therefore, we wouldn't need faith, we wouldn't have to trust God. However, our peace, assurance, and confidence are because of the revelation to us of the mystery of His Will, inherent in His rich grace toward us.

The Lord will see to it that we are always dependent upon Him. And He does that by leading us into situations that are over our head. That is why although we may get worried, God never gets worried because He already knows exactly what He's going to do (John 6 vs 6), for His grace is sufficient for us, for His strength is made perfect in weakness (See Second Corinthians 12 vs 9). The fact that God’s power is displayed in our weakness should give us courage and hope. He has got a plan, a path, and a work all ready for us. 

But although the Lord already has a plan for us to follow, a path for us to walk in, and a work for us to do, He won't give us all the answers today that we will need tomorrow. With each new day comes the grace that we need to live that day and meet the challenges of it. As we recognize our limitations, we depend more on God for our effectiveness rather than on our own energy, effort, or talent. Our limitations not only help develop Christian character, but also deepen our worship, because in admitting them, we affirm God’s strength—His grace.

You may have heard the story about the young man who was in prison and about to be burned at the stake the next day for his faith in Christ. In the same cell there was an older, more experienced believer who knew more about the way of the Lord. As it began to get dark, the younger man struck a match to light a candle and, as he did so, he burned his finger. Letting out a cry of anguish and pain, he said to his companion, "How can I stand to be burned at the stake tomorrow if I can't stand to be burned on the finger tonight?" The older man calmly replied, "Son, God didn't ask you to burn your finger, so there is no grace for that. But He is asking you to die for your faith, so when the time comes the grace will be there."

No matter what happens, God is still in control. He has a plan to handle everything that we will encounter in this life. And His grace is sufficient to meet all our needs. And He makes His rich and abundant grace available to us that ensures our adequately meeting all our needs: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” (Second Corinthians 9 vs 8.)

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my faithful Companion. I am not sufficient of myself to think anything as being from myself, but my sufficiency is in You. Endue me with the excellent spirit to live for You all the days of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

 

Have Mercy on Me, O God

 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)

Three times: “Have mercy,” “according to your steadfast love,” and “according to your abundant mercy.”

This is what God had promised in Exodus 34:6–7:

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

David knew that there were guilty who would not be forgiven. And there were guilty who by some mysterious work of redemption would not be counted as guilty, but would be forgiven. Psalm 51 is his way of laying hold on that mystery of mercy.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” We know more of the mystery of this redemption than David did. We know Christ. But we lay hold of the mercy in the same way he did.

The decisive thing he does is turn, helpless, to the mercy and love of God. Today that means turning, helpless, to Christ, whose blood secures all the mercy we need.

The End of the Gospel

 

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9–11)

What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?

No. Verse 10 says “much more . . . shall we be saved by his life.” Then verse 11 takes it all the way up to the ultimate end and goal of the gospel: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”

That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.

God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).

The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.

ALL IS BY GOD’S GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY AUGUST 09, 2022.

SUBJECT : ALL IS BY GOD’S GRACE! 

Memory verse: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2 vs 10.) 

READ: Ephesians 2 vs 8 - 10:

2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God,

2:9: not of works, lest anyone should boast.

2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

INTIMATION:

The plan of salvation was initiated by God without any meritoriously devised good works of man or perfect keeping of the law. Because man could not live in a manner to save themselves, salvation had to be by grace in conjunction with man’s faith response. God extended grace to man regardless of the sin of man. In this way, therefore, grace is a gift. The condition upon which the grace of God is made effective for the salvation of man is that one must receive or accept the free gift, that is, it is conditioned on the response of man.    

Life is brought into existence and designed by God to be lived by His grace and purpose. The same way we are saved by grace through obedient faith, is the way we must live our daily lives in accord with His predetermined purpose. The same principles we apply to receive salvation we must apply to receive other blessings that come from God. We neither make or save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. We, therefore, get so frustrated when we are trying to live by works—our human efforts—amidst our emphasis on faith as Christians and wanting to lead our lives according to His precepts.

Even our faith is by the grace of God. If our life is by choice or our works, many will not be where they are today. They would have chosen, or worked for the places, positions, and races considered the best on earth.  Obviously it is all about His doing. He works out everything from the beginning, and all we do is do those good works which He planned beforehand for us and taking the paths which He prepared ahead of time for us to walk in. 

Hence the Scripture says, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2 vs13.) It is only by the grace of God that we walk in those predetermined paths for us. The child Jesus grew up to achieve all He did through the grace of God that was upon Him (Luke 2 vs 40), The apostle Paul, in several verses in his epistle emphasized on the working of the grace of God, even in his life. He said, "For by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (First Corinthians 15 vs 10) 

It is all about the grace of God and not by works—our human or natural ability. Let me give you a practical tip on how grace can be of benefit in your everyday life. When you get into a situation that begins to cause you to become frustrated, just stop and say, "O Lord, give me the grace to overcome this challenge." Then believe that God has heard your prayers and is answering that prayer and working out that situation, even as you go about your daily routine. Remember you have to believe because "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9 vs 23) and "If you believe, you will see the glory of God." (John 11 vs 40).

Prayer: Abba Father, without You I can do nothing. Thank You for Your grace available to me to do all things through Christ that strengthens me. May I never miss Your grace in my daily living, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S FAVOR!

 

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY AUGUST 08, 2022.

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING GOD’S FAVOR!

Memory verse: “And having come in, the angel says to her, ‘Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women." (Luke 1 vs 28.)

READ: First Samuel 2 vs 26; Luke 2 vs 40 & 52:

First Samuel 2:26: And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men.

Luke 2:40: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon Him.

2:52: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

INTIMATION: 

Favor is described as kindness; approval, friendly regard from a superior. Favor is, objectively, the grace in a person. When the Favor is of God, it is known as divine or supernatural favor—the grace or power from God in a person that enables him act graciously or favorably. And grace is described as unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor; the power that comes from God through the Holy Spirit indwelling us to help a person overcome all life’s challenges, and to meet every of our needs. 

The word “grace” and the word “favor” are both translated from the same Greek word “charis.” So, the grace of God is the favor of God. And favor of God is the grace of God—that which causes things to happen in our life that need to happen through the channel of our faith. It is the power of the Holy Spirit we receive to change us and to change our circumstances. One of the twenty-five names of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible is "the Spirit of grace." It is by God's Spirit of grace that we find favor with God and with man.

To be favored is to be featured—you attract a special attention or presented prominently; the Lord shining His light upon you, all to His glory. Although that light is real, it is usually invisible to the human eyes. Most of the time people don't even know why they look upon you with favor. They don't know why they like you, accept you, trust you, approve of you, enjoy being around you, prefer you over others. They just do, because God shines His light of grace upon you and gives you favor. If we keep our attitude right; giving God the glory, instead of becoming haughty and proud, then He will continue to pour out His favor upon us and treat us like His favorite.

Being featured, in my considered opinion, is not pride when the favored or featured position comes from God, not from our own personal ambitions or our own selfish efforts to call attention to ourselves. In all honesty, I find it very delightful to be featured by God. I like to see God move on my behalf, and I think everyone feels the same way. I must admit that it is fun to watch God single out someone for special attention and preferential treatment, especially in the presence of others. 

For example, have you ever found yourself standing in a long queue and worried about when to take your turn? Have you ever prayed for God to help you get through quicker? In April, 2009, I and my whole family (seven of us) went for visas interview at American embassy in Lagos. That morning, before leaving the hotel, we asked God for favor. At the embassy, we were on the line for barely five minutes when one of the security officials of the embassy worked up to my last daughter and child, and asked her to come to the front with the rest of us that came with her. In less than twenty minutes we were in the interview hall. While standing before the white lady interviewing us, the lady had her whole attention on the children and after granting us visas on virgin passports for a family of seven, she advised the children to keep the visas to enable them go to America for further studies in feature. 

If this kind of thing happens to you, you have been receiving God's favor, perhaps without even being aware of it. Just think how much more it will happen when you know to ask for it. And all there is left for you to do is say, "Thank You Lord."

It is always enjoyable to have favor from God. It just seems that it doesn't happen as often as we would like. Part of the problem is us. There are so many things that God would love to do for us, but He cannot because we won't ask. One reason we won't ask is because we don't feel worthy. We don't have nearly as much fun with the Lord as we should. We should have more freedom and liberty, and less fear and legalism. The only time we will go to God and ask for special favor is when we are absolutely desperate, when we have gotten ourselves into a situation that we cannot possibly handle on our own.

The Lord wants to be personally involved in our lives. He wants to be involved with us in the gas station queue, He wants to be involved with us in the grocery store checkout line. He wants to be involved with us when we get caught in a traffic jam and can't move and so on. God is interested and wants to get involved in everything about us. God wants to give us supernatural favor because it provokes genuine praise and thanksgiving which is very delightful to God because it is the only thing He can't do for Himself.

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is that Your Spirit of grace rest upon me always, that I may continually obtain Your favor in all aspects of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Ruler of All Nature

 

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33)

In modern language we would say, “The dice are rolled on the table, and every play is decided by God.”

In other words, there are no events so small that he does not rule them for his purposes. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” Jesus said. “And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:29–30).

Every roll of the dice in Las Vegas, every tiny bird that falls dead in a thousand forests — all of this is God’s command.

In the book of Jonah, God commands a fish to swallow a man (1:17), he commands a plant to grow for shade (4:6), and he commands a worm to kill it (4:7).

And far above the life of fish and worms, the stars take their place and hold their place at God’s command.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

How much more, then, the natural events of this world — from weather to disasters to disease to disability to death.

His law he enforces;
the stars in their courses
and sun in its orbit obediently shine;
the hills and the mountains,
the rivers and fountains,
the deeps of the ocean
proclaim him divine.
(“Let All Things Now Living,” Katherine Davis)

Let us therefore stand in awe and be at peace, knowing that no natural event is outside of God’s wise and good purposes, and perfect control.