Do you need to grow in grace?
Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Compass: GROW in grace and knowledge! (LISTEN HERE)
Grow in grace!
If you’ve been around Christianity for awhile, this phrase, “Grow in grace” is one that is used often. We even have a ministry in our church body of pastoral continuing education called “Grow in Grace.”
While it rolls off the tongue, what does it really mean to GROW in grace?
Certainly it’s more than becoming more graceful in my physical movements. It has to be more than just being more “gracious” in my demeanor and interaction with others.
But what is it?
It may seem like a silly question, but grace is God’s undeserved love for us shown to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the reality that we trust in for salvation. It is God’s gift to us that we have not deserved but is given to us.
So how do you grow in a gift that has already been given to you? It seems like once it has been given, that’s it.
Here’s what the Apostle Peter is getting at when he encourages every believer to “grow in grace.” Increase in your confidence, awareness, and trust in what God has done FOR you.
Grace in it’s essence is what God has done for us.
Unfortunately, grace is perhaps one of the hardest concepts, not necessarily to understand, but one to truly embrace.
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Growth area #1: Let grace be grace. We love to try to feel more secure in our relationship with God by our outward performance. Subconsciously we want God to notice our moments of patience, our acts of kindness, or our participation in worship. Why? Just in case God needs some evidence that we deserve his love. We abandon, so subtly, the confidence of grace to question what else has to be done to secure life with Jesus forever. Our nature is to DO something to earn God’s favor.
Just think when you receive a very nice gift. I just had a birthday. My family gave me two very nice gifts. It was hard for me to just receive them without thinking how much they cost. If I should pay some for them, etc. It is so natural to receive a gift conditionally and self-impose conditions that WE have to do to make ourselves feel better about receiving the gift (which is no longer a gift because no we feel we earned or deserved it!).
Stop!
There is no need to add to grace our performance…in fact in doing so we negate grace.
There is no need to find a personal boast in receiving God’s gift of salvation…he is happy and desires to fully give it to us…no strings attached and no performance required.
Let grace be grace.
Growth area #2: Let grace motivate performance. Let go of the need to earn God’s favor and just live in grateful response TO God’s favor. Grace is already yours. Now just use that gift to be God’s workmanship and carry out his calling on your life.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Let grace motivate a life of grace.
What God has done for us in Christ is simple at the surface, but the depth and impact is a lifetime of growth to understand, appreciate, take to heart, trust, and live. Enjoy the journey of growing in grace!
Apply: What makes it challenging to receive grace without thinking you have to “pay” for it in some way?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for grace. Forgive me for lessening your grace by trying to earn it in some way. Keep me growing in your grace that I might love you more, trust you securely, and live for you more joyfully. AMEN.
GROW: Just do it!
Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Compass: GROW in grace and knowledge! (LISTEN HERE)
2 Peter 3:17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
“Grow up!”
We hear this phrase when we do something that is immature for our age.
Making intentional bodily function noises as a pre-teen was funny…as an adult, not so funny.
Eating food with your fingers? Perhaps a necessity as a toddler…not so cool as a college student.
Petty relationship squabbles? Perhaps normal for middle school…not so great in the professional realm.
We are expected over time to “grow up.” While the details might be nebulous, we expect that the maturity of an individual overtime increases. We expect different behavior and way of thinking from a 30 year old than we do from a 3 year old. We expect different decisions to come from someone who is 40 versus a child who is 4.
Growth and maturity happen.
The question is, “are you growing spiritually?”
As you look back over the last year…have you grown in some aspect of your spiritual life? If you look back over the last 10, 20 or 30 years? Are you more mature?
What do I mean?
Are you still operating with the spiritual wisdom and knowledge you had as a teenager? Is your understanding and awareness of the content of the BIble greater than it was five years ago? Do you interact with others in a more Christ-like way than you did a decade ago…or 10 days ago?
The BIble expects that we grow spiritually. The elementary truths are to give way to the more advanced truths. The early application of God’s Word is to give rise the more complicated applications of the Word. What “age” are you spiritually?
I ask this question not to demean anyone. I ask it myself. While the pediatrician as a “scale of normal” to measure the growth and cognitive progress of an infant, we don’t have something so concrete and finite for our spiritual lives.
So while the measurement may be subjective, it doesn’t matter because the application is personal. Perhaps the words from Hebrews ring true:
Hebrews 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
The Apostle Peter encourages two broad categories: 1) Grow in grace!; 2) Grow in knowledge…of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Growth is not optional for the Christian. Growth is necessary.
I would never think about sending our daughter at 18 months away to live on her own…but at 18 years…she is able to survive and thrive on her own at college. She has grown. She has matured. Sure, there is more for her to learn and understand, but she is much better equipped to engage in college today than she was 16 years ago.
So again, I invite us to consider today and this week, “Are you growing…spiritually?” Are you enjoying an exhibiting a more mature faith today than you did last year or five years ago.
If not, you are forgiven and invited into the journey of spiritual growth…beginning today for the rest of your life.
Our devotions this week will help encourage and practically guide a new season of spiritual growth!
Apply: How have you grown or not grown spiritually the last year? What helped? What hindered this process?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the encouragement to grow, the resources to grow, and the promise to bless our growth in you! AMEN.
Connection sharpens our purpose!
Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Compass: Direction begins with Connection! (LISTEN HERE)
Every sharp tool is sharpened for a purpose.
A wood carver’s set of knives is sharpened to the arc and angle needed. A hunter’s knife is sharpened to efficiently skin an animal. A butcher’s knife is sharpened to cut quickly through whatever meat or food is being chopped.
God puts us in connection with others to sharpen our purpose. He knows that our role on this earth, while unique and individual, is sharper when we are in connection with others.
1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
The Lord loves to take us as individuals, redeem us in Christ, and the build us together with others to be the “priesthood” he designed us to be.
What does that priesthood do? Offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Collectively, we are living for the Lord.
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Again, we realize all of our live is one lived for the glory of the Lord. While we can do that individually, our effectiveness is when God combines our lives with the lives of others to carry out his purpose and mission in the earth.
If he needed just one, he would have stopped with Jesus. However, Jesus chose 12 along with other followers who became the first New Testament Church. That quickly expanded to 3000 on Pentecost and hasn’t stopped growing since.
Individually and collectively we “declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness.” When one gets discouraged, another is there to encourage. When one stumbles, another is there to pick them up. When one grows weary, another is there to strengthen. When one loses their way, another is there to go after them. When one needs to learn, another is there to teach.
It’s what God’s people do for each other and with each other when we collectively see and carry out our purpose in this life. We are here to follow the Lord and declare the praises of the Lord.
How?
By the sharpening of the Spirit and his work through others to remove the dull edges with the friction of sharpening and through the sparks to purify for himself a people that are his own.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Iron will sharpen iron. One person will sharpen another.
It’s not always easy, but it’s God’s way of making us sharp to carry out his purpose!
Apply: How have you become more effective at your life as a Christian through the sharpening God has done through other people in your life?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for caring enough to sharpen me rather than throw me away. Help me to receive the sparks of sharpening, knowing that your will is to sharpen for yourself a people who are transformed by and living out your grace! AMEN.
Connection sharpens our faith!
Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Compass: Direction begins with Connection! (LISTEN HERE)
If iron sharpens iron, what results when the sparks stop flying and the extra metal is ground off?
A sharp, effective cutting knife or tool.
If you have ever tried to cut a piece of wood with dull blade or cut a piece of steak with a dull knife? It’s frustrating and is not very effective.
Only when an implement is sharp can it function properly.
So it is with us.
The Lord wants to sharpen us so we are the most effective for him we can be.
The people he puts around us are part of this process.
He puts connections in our life to sharpen our faith.
Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Every child needs a parent to guide and teach them. As parents we do our best to pour into our children’s lives to help them, grow, learn and mature. Along the way, parents do the tough job of disciplining. The fun job of celebrating success and the long-term job of modeling and teaching. Each little aspect adds to the formation of the child, with, God-willing, the outcome being a well-rounded, God-fearing, functioning adult who adds value to the world and other people as a follower of Jesus.
The same is true for our faith. We need people around us to guide us, mentor us, model for us, teach us, warn us, correct us, etc. The Apostle Paul indicates that the very people we need are the very people with which God blesses us in the community of his church. The people around us from the leadership to the membership are there to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus, our understanding of his Word and the discernment of what is truth and error.
The goal?
“Grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
Every person God is working on and bringing together to be the fully functioning body he intended. What is the impact when all the members of the body of Christ are “sharp in their faith”?
The body grows.
The body loves.
The body matures.
The body impacts.
The body supports
The body withstands opposition.
The body reflects Christ.
When you cut through wood with a sharp blade or a juicy steak with a sharp knife it is a beautiful, effortless activity. The end result is enjoyment of the smooth cut or the fine steak.
So it is when the Lord sharpens our faith. We enjoy the blessing of the faith he gives us and the community of faith in which he has placed us. While friction and sparks may fly again when more sharpening is needed, in the interim we find the joy, peace, blessing and grace of being with and functioning with the body of Christ.
Iron will sharpen iron…so will connection with people sharpen you and you them!
Apply: What aspect of your faith has been sharpened by someone around you? What was hard about this? What was the result you and they were blessed with?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for putting people in my life to sharpen my faith. Help me to see the blessing of this sharpening so I might be a more impactful, effective follower of you! AMEN.
Blessing in Conflict?
Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Compass: Direction begins with Connection! (LISTEN HERE)
There are aspects of the Christian life that you cannot experience or grow in apart from connection with other people.
From time to time, I encounter people who say they “worship God by themselves” or state that “I don’t need to be part of a church to be a Christian.”
Perhaps we could argue the merits of these statements, but my internal reaction is usually, “That’s weird.”
As we noted on Monday, God created us for community and also designed his Church to be a community of many different people interacting around a common focus (worshiping the true God) and common purpose (serving the true God).
Perhaps an overlooked blessing of being connected with other people is the opportunity to experience and show the love of God in ways you wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity. Again, this isn’t always easy and at times there is friction and sparks that fly.
What do I mean?
Again we look to the inspired words of the Apostle Paul: Ephesians 4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
These emotions and reactions come very easily to us. They are products of our sinful nature and love to exhibit themselves when we interact with people. Relationships are challenging because we often react and interact according to our sinful, self-centered heart. Some does something we don’t like…we get angry. It happens a few times and we form bitterness. We don’t like what they are doing and make sure everyone else hates them too. If we can ruin their lives and make them miserable too, all the better. It is true, connection with people gives opportunity for our sinful nature to rear its ugly head.
So we avoid connection with people, right? Wrong.
Instead we see people that God has put in our lives as individuals he has placed there to give us opportunity to express AND receive the same grace and love we have received from him. The very next verse from the Apostle Paul is this:
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
God gives us people to put into practice the same kindness, compassion and forgiveness we ourselves have received from him.
It’s easy to receive the forgiveness of God in Christ. It’s hard to express it. It’s hard when we’ve been wronged to let the friction and sparks fly to hone off the rage and anger and let the sharpness and strength of forgiveness to appear. It’s hard when a relationship has hurt us to let the Spirit grind off the malice and slander and let the sharpness and strength of kindness and compassion come out.
But that’s the blessing and value of connection with people.
We get to see not only the reality of God’s love in our own lives, but the impact when we share it with others.
Admittedly, it’s not always easy. But again, if iron is going to sharpen iron, sparks and friction fly…but the result is a heart and soul sharpened on the love and grace of God.
Apply: What relationship is challenging your sinful nature to react with anger and slander? What might God be grinding off and honing through this relationship?
Prayer: Spirit of God, strengthen me to receive the grinding and honing necessary to sharpen my heart and soul for you! AMEN.