The Grace of God

I’m sure everyone has seen the clips on tv how different countries have their armies lined up across the streets, row after row, driving their tanks and hauling their missiles to show the world their military strength. Each day, they perfect their weapons, their skills, spending hours after hour of practice so when an enemy attacks they are prepared and ready to use that weapon.

As a believer, you have been given weapons to fight the attacks that come against your life;
attacks against your physical well-being; attacks against your state of mind; attacks against your family. The weapons are through prayer, praise, the word of God, to name a few. One weapon in our arsenal is called grace. Grace is not a warm fuzzy blanky that comforts you
when you are having a bad day, but a powerful force to bring you to victory.

• Grace is an enabling force that will give you a kick in the pants
• A force that will give you a push forward and not dwell on the past
• A force that will say no when you want to give up
• A force that will remind you it’s not about you, but about God and about others
• A force that will lead you to your denying of yourself
• A force that will help you forgive even when offenses do come
• A supernatural force that enables the believer to stand and fight the good fight of faith and that you can finish your course with joy.

The grace of God does not come from your pastors. It does not come from your LIFEgroup leaders. It doesn’t come from your husband or your wife. It doesn’t come from the newest book. But it comes from God, only God, and nobody else but God.

When we allow Grace to work in our lives we can say as the apostle Paul said, “But 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.”  All that Paul did was because of the Grace of God. The focus here isn’t on ‘I am what I am’, but rather He is who He is because He is the GREAT I AM.

Therefore, we can accomplish all that God calls us to do and we can be who we are because of God’s enabling grace and because of His power we can overcome sin....we can overcome temptation! Because of His grace we can love the way God loves, forgive the way God forgives, be kind, be gentle, patient, forbearing, live for husbands, love our wives as Christ loves the Church...the list really is endless!