Daily Grace

Our Wednesday morning Bible study, Seeking Him, has a workbook that asks very revealing questions. Through it I have been receiving a more accurate picture of myself. It has helped me to acknowledge my shortcomings which has been quite humbling. However, it has not left me to wallow in the corruptness of my character.

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A few weeks ago the topic of our study was grace. I realized that I understood the concept of Jesus' saving grace but had failed to grasp God's daily grace. I have often struggled to live the Christian life in my own power not realizing that I am not equipped to do so. Every time I have tried to "become a better person" on my own, I have failed. God's grace reminds me that I cannot be a Christian without Christ. Not just accepting Jesus as my Savior and then continuing on in my own power but instead asking him each day to give me his grace and fill me with his power to do the things God has called me to do through his Word.

A verse from that week helped connect it all together for me. Philippians 2:13 says God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. (CEB) It is so freeing to realize that it is God who first gives me the desire to do what is pleasing to him and then provides the power and ability to do so. If I am not asking him to do these things for me then I am trying to do them myself and am living with the mentality that I have to do things in order to be pleasing to God. The fact is that I am already pleasing to him because Jesus' blood covers me. 

Now I am not saying that I can continue to do whatever I want because it is God who has to change me. I still need to be looking for his guidance and seeking to live according to what he has told me through his Word. At the same time I don't have to beat myself up every time I fail in some aspect. I can be confident that God is working these things out in me. Paul reminds us that God's work in us will be finished at the proper time in Philippians 1:6 - being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Have you fully grasped the significance of God's grace in your daily life?