All my life I've heard grace defined as God's unmerited favor, and that's absolutely true. But it is so much more.
Have you ever had something you needed to quit and you wanted to quit, but you just couldn't give it up? Have you ever had something you needed to do and you wanted to do, but you just couldn't get it done? Have you ever had someplace you needed to go…you even felt God calling you to go, but you just couldn't get there?
Grace is God willingly applying His ability and power to do through us the thing we need to do (or stop doing) but we can't do it on our own. Grace is God's empowering that helps us accomplish the things in life that we cannot seem to accomplish under our own power. Grace is the power God places in us that enables us to defeat sin.
With our own strength and abilities we can sometimes do the possible, but God's grace empowers the Christian to do the impossible. Truly, it seems God always calls us to do the impossible — but with His grace working in our lives, the impossible becomes reality.
Even though we don't deserve His great and awesome power called grace, He gives us His grace as a free gift. In order for us to be able to accomplish the will of God, we must tap into His grace.
There is no limit to God's grace. His grace is boundless. There is no limit to His power. He can do anything.
Once a lady told me she had a specific problem. I asked, "Did you ask God to give you the grace to solve this problem?"
She said, "Well, I don't want to bother God."
We're not bothering God by asking Him for grace. God is not waiting to give us His grace; He's already done that. He is waiting for us to receive it. Nor is God restricted by time the way we are. When we go before the Father, it may take us three or four minutes or it might take us an hour to pray our prayer and make our requests. We're tempted to think we took up an hour of God's time. But no, we didn't.
God is not limited by time! God can listen to the prayers of millions of people all around the world at the same time. He is not in the framework of time. He moves in the realm of eternity. God is not bound by time.
God will give us rest and peace if we're "in faith" with Him. "In faith" is a state of being, comparable to being "in agreement." Being "in faith" is a decision and it requires certain actions, confessions, and self-control. There is a rest that comes because you are in faith that won't come any other way. You may say, "I have things settled in my life. I am at peace." You may think you're at peace, but if you're not in faith, you're not in total peace.
"There remains therefore a rest for the people of God." (Hebrews 4:9) There is a rest for the people of faith that doesn't exist for people who are not in faith. We need to know that. Rest is automatic for the Christian walking in faith. Faith is automatic for the Christian walking and abiding in the Word.
Devotion 0137