Dave’s Monday Blast – August 16, 2021
Grace is a gift most of us don’t know how to receive. We’ve been so inundated with the earthly systems of give-and get and work-and-earn that grace is a concept few ever fully grasp. Yet it’s grace alone that has the power to transform lives. Grace alone has the power to bring freedom to those in bondage to their sin. By grace alone we are saved. There could be no better use of our time than consistently and passionately pursuing a greater revelation of God’s grace. I love that song by Chris Tomlin, Your Grace is Enough.
Pastor Ryan Denision writes: “We are the children of a heavenly Father who richly provides everything we need to live, love, and work according to the perfect plans he has for us. Matthew 6:26 beautifully illustrates God’s promise of provision. Jesus says, ‘Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?’ The earth clearly demonstrates God’s ability to provide for his creation. He gives rain to the grass of the field and trees of the forest. Then as quickly as the clouds come, he rolls them away to bring life-giving sunshine to all of creation.”
Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6 makes it clear that we are of far more value to God than any other part of creation. We are of such value to God that he sent his only son to pay the highest price of an unjust death, that we might be able to live an abundant and new life through him. God provides for us both spiritually and physically because of the abundant grace he has for us. Read 1 Timothy 6:17 and discover that it is his grace that drives him to richly bless us even though we deserve nothing. His grace DRIVES HIM to give us every good gift…not as a result of our works (Ephesians 2:8 & 9). And because of God’s grace, we can place our hope in him for complete provision with full assurance that his promises will come to pass.
1 Timothy 6:17 clearly illustrates a separation between putting our hope in God and putting hope in ourselves or the world. Too often we miss the fact that everything we have was given to us by the grace of God. And in doing so we allow the belief that we’ve earned what we’ve received to creep into our hearts, resulting in a feeling of entitlement rather than thanksgiving. Denison comments: “Entitlement is a disease that spreads decay and death too far throughout the body of Christ. It kills any area in which it is allowed to enter by leading us to a life of pride and selfishness rather than hope and joy. It enslaves us to ourselves, as if we don’t see everything we’ve received as a gift by God’s grace, we live our lives constantly toiling and striving to earn what our heavenly Father has already promised to give us. And when we have failures or problems, we alone carry the burden of need rather than looking to our heavenly Father as our provider.”
My friends, life is not about what we have, but about a relationship with the God who has provided for us. INTENTIONAL men clearly understand that God has blessed them abundantly in the area of provision. I pray that you use every single possession as another opportunity to give thanks to the God who provided it for you in his grace. The world constantly attempts to enslave us. It tries to convince us that we need what it has and that it will satisfy our needs. But God’s word and our experience clearly show that the world apart from God only brings pain and dissatisfaction (Proverbs 23:4 – 5).
