I could be wrong but I think one of the hardest things followers of Christ have trouble with is knowing AND REMEMBERING that God’s grace is good for all time. I mean, we will relish God’s forgiving grace when we initially come to Jesus for salvation and be grateful for that grace. We will appreciate His forgiving grace when we mess up big time and see how important it is.
But…
But often we forget that forgiving grace in the harsh reality of life. For example, consequences. We want to accept God’s forgiving grace, but we kinda sorta expect the consequences to be erased too.
Or the other end happens. We can’t totally forgive ourselves. Yes, I accept God’s forgiveness. Yes, I have (if necessary) gone to that other person seeking forgiveness. But applying grace to ourselves and to our own ongoing battle within…now that’s another story.
What we must realize is that God’s past grace to us is also God’s present grace. And it will be a future grace. Past grace allows us to see God’s work in our life. And we cherish that work. But it is also important to see God’s present grace at work in us. Yes, we were made new, forgiven of everything (or that “big one”). But God’s grace doesn’t stop with that initial work in us.
God’s grace is at work within us, daily remaking us into the likeness of Christ. Don’t just leave grace as an act of the past. See grace as an act of the present-forgiving and setting us free.
Do yourself a favor: Take a moment and read Romans 8:31-34. You will be glad you did.
I think this is one area in the lives of Christians where the enemy really likes to play the mind games and twist the truth. If Satan can get us to focus on our failures, our pasts, our sin… He takes our focus off the work that God has called us to do. More than that, he discourages us and makes us think we are unusable, unredeemable, unloveable. His lies are straight from the pit of hell, tastes like sulfur, and smells like smoke.
What makes it worse, is when we begin to believe those lies, we can easily fall back into the same temptations and same patterns that we have been called out of. The shackles of sin have been broken, no reason to wrap those chains back around ourselves.
Great thoughts Ryan. And spot on. You have unveiled the truth about Satan’s lies. Well done!
I love Ryan’s comment here, Bill. We do need to say no to the devil and yes to grace every single day.
Blessings!
As do I Martha. And I totally agree with your assessment as well.
The entire chapter of Romans 8, is awesome. Go back to Romans 6:11
“So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus” Chapter 6 tells us that a person who has accepted Christ as their Savior is freed from sin. That our old self was crucified with Christ, and that the body ruled by sin has been rendered powerless so that we are no longer enslaved by sin.(paraphrase) All you can say to that is, Hallelujah, Thank-you Father. Move ourselves from slaves of sin, to slaves of God.
What a great point and a fantastic Scripture Gail. Thanks for giving some great input.