As I silently prayed this morning, I realized that I believe God exists. I easily rested in this truth, not struggling with questions and fear as I once did. His faithfulness has cultivated a growing faith in me. As I open my mouth in prayer, I acknowledge His eternal nature. He always has been and always will exist as a real and personal being. He receives and gives actions such as hearing and responding when I pray.
Today, I trust God extends grace to me.
Grace is God's chosen method in revealing Himself and cultivating relationship with us. It's easy to downplay the significance of grace because we're trained to gain through our own efforts. This is good when we labor as a productive part of creation, but it is prideful when refusing to humble ourselves before God's gifts. Through pride or self-sufficiency, our sinful nature can often find grace offensive or illogical. 2 Timothy 1:8-9, NASB says,
"...but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity."
God has chosen to have a relationship with me through grace. God determined to begin what He is fully able to carry out. It was His plan from eternity past and affects eternity future. His grace will be sufficient for me today.
Today, I trust that my life is a holy moment for God's glory.
Some days are easygoing, some painful. Other days I am filled with hope, and other days my mind teems with questions. Some days I am full of Him and others, full of myself. Each day I have the beautiful opportunity to resign my will to His, acknowledging that He has a plan for His glory that includes me. No matter how I feel, my situation and emotions do not change this holy moment. My very breath is being sustained by God. He desires my heart to be honest before Him, humbled, and obedient to what pleases Him. And that process might be part of the day's learning opportunity. I am one small star in the scope of the heavens who God created, named, and has purpose for (Isaiah 40:26).
Today, I trust that I am responsible to live for God's glory.
God expends His grace on us so that we can live according to our created purpose. Grace is not God's way of fattening us up for Christian laziness. When our focus is on God's glory and not our own, we connect with our responsibility in God's eternal plan. And more than a responsibility, it is our fullest joy to be a part of God's plan to share the grace we have received with others. Listen to Paul's admonition to Timothy in regards to the gospel message:
Hold the example of sound words which you have heard from me,
in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us,
1 Timothy 1:13-14, NASB
We guard the gospel so that future generations will be able to hear the same message that Jesus proclaimed. Guard? How? We have a responsibility to understand God's plan (revealed and recorded for us in the Bible), to believe ourselves to be an active part of it, and to act as His children who are entrusted with the gospel and empowered by the Holy Spirit. God's plan for allowing others to hear the good news of Jesus includes our choices to actively live out our created purpose--to know God and make Him known.
(c) Kendra Higgins 2013.
NASB Study Bible. Ed. Kenneth Barker. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Image courtesy of Maxime Perron Caissy / sxc.hu.
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