Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14

 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.-Romans 3:23-24

 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”-John 20:29

 

Saving Grace

Some days, even weeks
Seem to stay so dark
Find myself questioning
The whale, the flood, the Ark.
Is there really Grace?
Is it there for me?
Does God really love me?
Is His love really free?

Then comes my saving Grace
A reprieve to my soul.
In His loving presence
My faith becomes whole.
He is always with me
He is always on my side.
When I worship Him
I feel my fears subside.

When my mind is dark and weary
And my thoughts are paralyzed,
When everyone rejects me
‘Till my soul and spirit cries
That’s when I’m most frightened
By the threats clear and rife;
And every step seems crucial
To my time-worn life;

Then comes my saving Grace
A reprieve to my soul.
In His loving presence
My faith becomes whole.
He is always with me,
He is always on my side.
When I worship Him
I feel my fears subside.

It is the Son of God
Who dispels my fear.
He points me to the Father,
Makes Him real, brings Him near.
Reminds me to be thankful,
For the gifts that I’ve been given
Forgiveness from the Cross
Eternal life when He was risen.

Jesus is my saving Grace
The reprieve to my soul.
In His loving presence
My faith becomes whole.
He is always with me,
Always on my side.
When I worship Him
I feel my fears subside.
©Linda Troxell 4/16/16

 

Jesus tells us throughout the New Testament that we should not worry or be anxious about anything because our Father in heaven will provide all we need. In fact, He tells us in Matthew 6:8 that the Father knows what we need even before we ask.

Yet, how many of us can really say we worry about nothing? Many of us worry about many things: how we will pay the bills, how we will get a job, or keep a job, or get ahead in the job we have. We worry over health, over our kids and over the health of our kids.

So if Jesus tells us we are to worry about nothing and that through prayer ask our Father for what we need; if He tells us, as he did in John 14:13-14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do It.”, what is the message we send when we keep worrying?

When we worry we are telling God that we don’t think he can take care of us. Or, we are telling Him we aren’t sure He will take care of us even if He can. Worrying is an insult to God! Worry is the antithesis of faith. We cannot worry and have faith at the same time.

Faith is the belief in those things which remain unseen. Faith is believing even when we don’t feel something is true. It is believing even when there is no evidence that what we believe is true, or even when there is evidence to the contrary of what we believe.

Faith is saying I believe in God’s word more than I believe what I feel, see or I am told. Jesus said in John 29:20: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” How many of us have that kind of faith consistently?

I have it occasionally, for short periods, but day in and day out? Hmm, not me. So, if we insult God on a regular basis by worrying about our wellbeing even after He has told us to worry for nothing, if we regularly tell Him we don’t trust Him, why does He remain always faithful? Because God doesn’t love us for what we do or don’t do. We don’t, indeed we can’t, earn God’s love. His love is given unconditionally through grace.

Grace; we hear that word bandied around pretty consistently in the Christian world. But, what does it really mean? The dictionary tells us that grace is “the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings”.

The Bible in Romans 3:24  tells us, “For we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”. Quite simply grace is the undeserved, unmerited love and favor of God, given to all who have faith in Him, through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The ultimate grace of God to us as sinners is that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to live a blameless, sinless life then sacrificed Him to atone for our sins. It is through the blood of Jesus that we have been saved.

It is the law of the universe that sin must be paid for with death. God knew that we could not be sinless, He knew sin is part of our nature. But He loved us too much to let us die. So He allowed His son to die a horrific, humiliating, painful death that we may have eternal life.

That my friends is Grace: the undeserved, unmerited, love and favor of God! God does not demand any repayment for this exceptional gift. But there are things He hopes for in return.

He hopes we will allow Him to be a part of everything in our lives, large and small; significant and insignificant. He hopes we will turn to Him in prayer for all of our needs. He hopes we will turn to Him in prayer when our only need is to be with Him. He hopes that our faith in Him will continue to grow.

Finally, He hopes that we will, daily, attempt to emulate His Son, thereby coming closer and closer to being the love that is needed in the world and contributing to the peace and brotherhood that can only be created by that love. I wonder, can you give God what He hopes for? Will you?

 

Points for Prayer and Pondering

1. Make a list of 2-5 things you worried about in the past that turned out fine. Did your worry help create a positive outcome? Did you worry itself have negative consequences?

2. What prevents you from having enough faith to turn your worry over to God and leave it with Him? What are some things you can do to strengthen your faith and decrease your worry?

3. Do you think you can give God any or all of what He hopes for in return for His Grace? If not all, which things can you give Him? What prevents you from giving Him all that He hopes for?

4. Write a short prayer to God thanking Him for His grace.