Grace, Grace and More Grace!!

“A faithful Christian burns grace like a 747 burns fuel.”-Dallas Willard

Rom 5:15-17; 6:11-14; 12.

I need grace!  I need it for more than I often realize.  Sure I need grace for forgiveness, but I need it all the more to live the kind of life I've I'm called to live.  If grace was just about forgiveness it would be “half” grace. Kind of like, "OK you're forgiven, now go do better and try harder."   The robust grace that is ours through Christ also involves the on-going availability of "Holy-Spirit help" as we seek to follow Christ and live out his teachings in the nitty-gritty places of our life.  We simply cannot have one piece of grace without the other.  One provides absolution, the other strength and fortitude.  I Love these passages in Romans because they reflect the robust grace given to us by God and the way in which we're called to utilize it.

I have spent a fair amount of time as a pastor’s wife meeting with married couples who are in crisis.  Often one spouse (or both) have been unfaithful or there’s a pattern of being unloving toward the other.  It is not difficult for them to recognize the need to ask forgiveness.  That is not the issue.  The real issue comes when the behavior continues.  They may reignite an affair, keep raging out at home, lie about a shopping spree, or withdraw to the TV or internet in lieu of spending time together.  To change a pattern of behavior takes concerted effort and often it is the lack of effort that keeps us from realizing the treasure and joy of being in a loving, ongoing, open relationship with our spouse.   Living with, loving, and being loved back by our spouse is a powerful reconciliation.

When destructive patterns keep coming up, questions arise and we being to wonder if grace will run out? Another question that comes up is the reciprocal, "Can I really keep doing this?"  Perhaps we ask the wrong questions because if we really want something, easy or not, our efforts tend to move us in that direction naturally.   Maybe the real question to ask is, “What do you really want? Do you really want to be in this marriage?”  That needs to be answered before any further movement for reconciliation can be accomplished.  So why am I talking about this?

Our relationship with God is like a marriage.  God is forever faithful but we can be so painfully unfaithful!  Our reconciliation involves more than forgiveness.  We also need His grace to stay in it! When we continue to seek grace for forgiveness yet disregard the grace needed to live out our new life in Christ, the question is not “Will His grace will run out or will He tire of us and walk away?  Nor is it, “Will I lose my salvation status with Him?”  The question we must ask is this, “Is it God that I really want?  Do I really want to be in a relationship with Him?”  If it is, then I will use as much grace as possible to stay connected to Him.  My efforts will move in that direction and I will use up Holy-Spirit “fuel” to live the life to which I have been called through Christ. That is the treasure and joy of being in a loving, ongoing, open relationship with God and it shows up in the nitty-gritty!  As Christ infuses me with His grace (strength and fortitude),  the ongoing reconciliation of my surrendered-self discovers the joy of being in relationship with him and He becomes what I really want.

So here's a few questions:  

Are you caught in frustrating habits?
Is it God that you really want? 
If it is, how will you utilize His grace today?