This week’s devotions are based on “The Key” Week 4: “Share Grace!” (WATCH HERE)
1 Timothy 4:1-4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
It shouldn’t surprise us that there are people who are not followers of Christ. In fact, perhaps you, reader, have had a season you were apart from Christ. The heart of God is for all to be saved. The heart of Satan is to have all deceived and separated from the love of God that is in Christ. So the two are battling each other for your soul. As we looked at a few weeks ago, the battle is real and we must prepared for it.
So if we are on “Team Christ” and on the offensive to share grace, to whom are we looking to share that grace? The Spirit of God gives us three groups of people who need the grace of God.
First, people who have abandoned the faith. In 21st century America, I see these individuals who grew up in a Christian home and for some reason have drifted away from their roots and the grace of God they were exposed to as a little child. The story could be different for everyone, but perhaps there are a few themes. Some leave their faith because it was challenged in college and the logic of the professor made more sense to them than the stories of Sunday School. Some go through a tragedy or very hard time in life and believe that God is the author of their pain and just can’t reconcile a loving God allowing something this hard to come into their life. Or perhaps another reason is they had a bad experience in the church at some point and equated their experience with sinful individuals with all of Christianity. These people need you to listen, understand and bring them grace.
A second group of people are those who are deceived by the lies of Satan. No matter the motivation of those sharing the lies, they work to move a person away from Christ. The tactics of Satan are not obvious always but deceiving. They sound good, but are not truth. For example, some deceptions that sound good, but are spiritually harmful is the belief that all gods are the same but we just call them by different names. Satan wants us to believe that there are many paths to heaven and Christianity is just one of them. It sounds good in our woke culture, but the eternal consequences will be devastating to all who believe this lie. Satan loves to make us think we can be our own God. It worked on Adam and Eve and it works today. It sounds like this, “God wants me to be happy.” Yet, really I just want God to affirm the things I’m doing regardless if they are God’s will or ways. It sounds like, “Don’t tell me what to believe.” I want to determine what is right for me and not be under the authority of anyone else. These people need you to listen, understand and bring them grace.
A third group of people who are burdened by the weight of legalism and are missing out on the blessing of God. Unfortunately the visible church can be good at putting down rules for Christian living. Many of them can be guided by the commands of God, but sometimes they drift into laws that God has not spoken clearly or at all about. Forbidding people to marry leads to missing out on the blessing of marriage and opens the door to other sexual temptations. Burdening the conscience with dietary regulations that no longer apply or never did, leaves one missing out on good things God intended for them. Sometimes laws are put down to prohibit something that God allows for in moderation. Blessings turn into burdens. These people need you to listen, understand and bring them grace.
What was happening in first century Christianity is happening in the 21st. The solution is the same grace of God that changes hearts and lives. And the vehicle is you and me who have received grace to be bold to share grace.
Apply: Do you know someone in one of these three categories? Make an intentional effort to engage in conversation to understand their spiritual journey and as the Spirit leads, share God’s grace with them.
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to see those that have drifted from you, have been deceived or are burdened by laws you never gave. Use me to share the freeing power of your grace with them. AMEN.