Can you minister grace to people who don’t inspire you to acts of kindness? Let me suggest a good beginning. Stoop down and embrace them. Love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out is compassion. But love that stoops is grace.
Let’s consider Andrew Bonar’s example of perseverance, faith, and hopeful prayer. During this time when we need hope in the midst of chaos, remember Bonar’s words, “We can never hope for too much!”
The cross is where we gain our spiritual freedom. But we don’t honour the cross...we honour the One who hung on it. Christ is the object of our adoration.
Hard times call for two things: Friends and character. If you have gone through hard times in recent days, you know the value of both. Character rests on truth, reinforces a life, and resists the temptation to compromise. Those who’ve impacted our lives the most have been people of character.
Many think the Spirit’s sole responsibility is to perform miracles, like when Peter commanded the paralyzed man to walk. But these miracles do not occur in the everyday lives of most Christians.
Perhaps the waters of guilt have washed over you, and you feel like you are sinking in sorrow and regret. What could be preventing you from moving beyond your past and feeling forgiven?
Pastors today constantly counsel believers struggling with depression, broken marriages, anxiety, anger, and weak self-control. They can't help but wonder, “Where's that abundant life Christ promised in John 10:10?”
Grace is a foreign concept to us because the world doesn’t operate based on grace. It trends towards criticism and judgment. Grace says, “I forgive you...I accept you as you are...I value you.”
Walking closely with the Lord means we must come to terms with forgiving others. Yes, must. We can’t avoid or deny the fact that relationships often bring hurt and the need to forgive.
How can salvation from the power of sin become a reality? Being “saved by grace apart from works” is one thing, but being able to walk by grace…that’s quite another. How can we now live victoriously? What must take place in order for us to live free from sin’s control?
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