01/04/2019
Do you feel like the grace you have received from Jesus Christ is enough? Are you satisfied with it, and willing to sit where you are and grow no further in it because you feel it is complete in you? If this is the case then open your eyes because that is not a scriptural truth... we are told to seek and grow in the grace of Jesus every day.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
2 Peter 3:18 ESV
When I consider the subject of grace, I like to think of it in conjunction with His abiding in me. I view the grace I am receiving in the same light that I see Jesus abiding and growing in me as I seek out my own salvation. Although Christ abides in me, and that could be considered enough, I continue to make the pilgrim’s journey through life growing more in my knowledge, love, humility, and yes grace, of Him each day as I walk. Are you traveling with Jesus, and is your overwhelming desire to reach your ultimate destination with Him so strong that you can’t wait to begin each day’s adventure anew with Him?
“and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
1 Timothy 1:14 ESV
When I was a boy I went on a fifty mile hike through the Alps to a beautiful alpine village called Berchtesgaden Germany. When I began my hike, I had a pack on my back that contained everything I would need to make the trip, but it would also come to hold all the things I gathered along the way. As I traveled I used up many of my stores such as food, but as those things were consumed they were replaced with the treasures I gathered along the way. When I finally reached my destination, all my foodstuff was exhausted, yet my pack was just as full as when I started because I had gathered so many items along the way... reminders of the various places I had been, and seen... new experiences that were now a part of me. But, I came to understand that these trinkets and other items I carried on my back weren’t really the goal of the trip... they were just reminders of what I carried inside of me... the memories and knowledge of all I had experienced. The things inside of me were the real treasure I had acquired; things such as the friendship that had grown with my fellow hikers, and my incredible encounter of faith, and God that I had experienced when I dined with the monks at a Monastery along the way. Our hike through life with Jesus is similar; we gather things, and we do works, but the treasure is inside us where He have grown with each stride we have taken with Him. Our good works are just things; the real treasures we gather in these acts of kindness, and such, lies within us. Our grace, humility, and love were present from the moment our pilgrimage began, but they are increasing throughout the journey until at last we reach our destination complete in their fullness. This is why we walk. Listen as Paul explains the journey, and the importance of bearing the fruit of our works...
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
Colossians 1:9-10 ESV
Did you see it? The fruit is what we should seek from our good works. We do works so that we can gather the fruit that sustains, and grows us. This is why we journey with Jesus... to grow in our faith, and consume the fruit of it.
It is true that the Grace of Christ is sufficient for us, even from the very beginning of our faith, but are you willing to limit yourself to a sip when He is offering you an unending, ever increasing, supply of it? Was your love for Him completed, full, and enough, when you first caught glimpse of Him?
“An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect understanding of His love to us, are among the best tests of growth in grace.” - Charles Spurgeon
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your grace that flows from your Son Jesus Christ. I thank you for the lesson of humility it teaches me as I realize how undeserving I am of it. I thank you Holy Father for leading me along this pilgrimage route that strengthens me with each step I take along the way, and teaches me to be ever more like you as I go. I thank you for loving me Lord when it was not obvious that I was worth loving. You washed me clean in the blood of your Son, and now you increase me in character, love, humility, knowledge, your endless grace, and so much more... I praise you for this because there is nothing I have done that would earn me these blessings. I am unworthy of your notice, and yet you love me, and in your love and mercy I find my thirst for your grace unquenchable. Praised be your name always, and guard my humility so that I give you all the glory forevermore. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who fills me with His grace that I might love Him more, and in so doing, brings honor and glory to Himself through my ever increasing love and obedience.
Rich Forbes