12 Days of Eternal Gifts {Day 6}

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Day 6 ~ Let my grace transform you.

What about grace?

Where there is grace, there is discipline. Where we receive grace, there is obedience. Often, He gives us that grace to rise above ourselves and provides greater understanding when we are able to walk in greater knowledge. The beauty of this grace is found in its undeserved covering where the Savior’s outstretched hand meets us at the point of our need, just because of who He is. This grace granted because of the Cross. This gift of favor opened because we received HIM.

They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10, NIV)

Chastisement leads to the acceptance of God’s will. [. . .]

Chastisement leads to the fellowship of God’s Son. The will of God out of Christ is a law we cannot fulfil. The will of God in Christ is a life that fills us. [. . .]

Chastisement leads to the enjoyment of God’s love. [. . .] Chastening is the school in which the blessed lesson is learnt that the will of God is all Love, and that Holiness is the fire of Love, consuming that it may purify, destroying the dross only that it may assimilate into its own perfect purity all that yields itself to the wondrous change. [. . .]

And faith can only grow by exercise, can only thrive in trial: when visible things fail, its energy is roused to yield itself to be possessed by the Invisible, by the Divine.—Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ (my emphasis)

{Flesh be quiet . . . Peace be still.}

It’s easy to be angry; it’s so much harder to be happy.

Where there is no peace, there is no power; but when you know peace, you will know power [. . .].—Joyce Meyer

You have granted me life and favor, And Your care has preserved my spirit. (Job 10:12, NKJV)

What do you conspire against the Lord? He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time. (Nahum 1:9, NKJV)

* Faith is trusting in Him and not faith itself.

{I forgot about grace . . .}

Remember this; or you may fall into error by fixing your minds so much upon the faith which is the channel of salvation as to forget the grace which is the fountain and source even of faith itself. [. . .] Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. [. . .] Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor think of as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in “looking unto Jesus,” not in looking to our own faith. [. . .] The peace within the soul is not derived from the contemplation of our own faith; but it comes to us from Him who is our peace.—Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace (my emphasis)

The same instructions apply to both the guilt offering and the sin offering. Both belong to the priest who uses them to purify someone, making that person right with the Lord. (Leviticus 7:7, NLT)

As the same instructions apply for both guilt and sin in the law of old, the same apply under the new covenant.

As far as the east from the west, remembered no more. Jesus, the High Priest, has made us pure!

Guilt doesn’t make you do better; it makes you do worse—Joel Osteen, Every Day a Friday (p. 89, my paraphrase)

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. (Luke 15:18, NKJV)

When you understand your position, you can change your condition. (p. 91)

* He pulled me out, and I am receiving His grace! {Jacob and his bruised heal, my message from Gordon} I am Wrestling My Way to a New Place in God. {Click to see notes from Beth Moore.}

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. (John 20:23, NKJV)

Today I am thankful for grace, and I am letting it transform me by resting in what He has completed in the Cross. Today I am putting my faith in its rightful place, and not in faith itself. Today I am looking at Him who is grace. How can you allow grace to transform your heart?