God's Grace of Economy is Worthy of Praise
Have you ever thought you have been on the short end of Grace?
Paul prayed for believers to bow to God's Grace in generosity in his testimony of Ephesians 3:14-19, he implied that it is beyond out ability to fathom God's love for us through Jesus Christ:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
There is Grace Even In Strife
One the one hand, David wrote in Psalms 50:10, “For every beast of the forest is Mine; the cattle on a thousand hills" (basically all of them are in reality His).
In return for His love and riches, God is not looking for a blood sacrifice from us because Jesus has already offered His life for our sin-debts. Our thanksgiving and honor to Him is all He seeks in return for our asking His help in our times of trouble, according to David's subsequent testimony in Psalms 50:14-15: “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay your vows to the Most High;" Further, He promises His help when you call on Him, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” In return, we vow our belief and faith in Jesus Christ's sacrifice and freely love, honor, and obey God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for what's left of our lives of earth.
Have you ever asked God for help? Sometimes I think people expect a quid pro quo deal with the Lord, you know, a sort of scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Almost all business and governmental machinations seem to be predicated in the question, "What's in it for me or my stockholders, or my constituents.
I often catch myself being kind of selfish in my prayer expectations. I listened to myself. Of course, some of the things I prayed for was world peace, security and plenty for everyone. Most of us do, I am sure, right? Yea right, sure.
In reality, I realized that most of what I prayed for was for my own benefit first. One day in the Lord convicting me of this, I vowed to go on an "I" Fast. What is an "I" Fast, you ask? Well, I am glad you asked. An "I" Fast is saying prayers or making requests to the Lord without saying the words "I," "me," or "my." I remember being terribly convicted after reading the "I's" of the Bible.
Check out Isaiah 14:11-15:
11. ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’
12. “How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13. “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15. “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.
Notice the lines I underlined in the Scripture above? To who do you think the "I" is referring? Well, it's none other than satan. We always want more than what we have and almost always think more of ourselves without regard to others. We live in an age of self-entitlement, when we should be happy that we are just alive despite the evil all around us in the world.
I suggest that you try the "I" Fast one of these days. I found it was one of the hardest things for me to do. Invariably, when I prayed to the Lord, I found myself not asking God how His day was. Instead, I would share with him my plight and inability to get what I felt I needed and I asked for His help in getting me what I thought I needed. And that is OK to do; I'm sure that God wants to have a dialogue with you like that. But praying for others and praising God changes your focus to more than your own circumstances, which for sure He knows, praying for others is akin to sacrificing your self for the sake of others. And that is what Christ did for you.
If you do go on an "I" Fast, you will soon realize that about the only way to complete it successfully is by using the sincere phrase, "Thank You," more and more, over and over.
Once I started thanking the Lord for everything, even the smallest of things God did for me turned out to be much greater than I would have first thought. "Oh Lord thank you so much for keeping that driver from running that red light." If you just snickered, I did not intend to make you snicker. It wasn't the red light that kept that driver from running the light, you see. It was the consequences of breaking the Law that kept that driver from running the light. Sin made the Law necessary. Breaking the law exposes sin to ourselves and others (Romans 3:20b: ...through the Law comes the knowledge of sin). Wouldn't it be great if we did not have to have Laws?
How well do you think we are all doing with the Laws we have now? Check out what Barry McGuire has to say about how we're doing by clicking for his thoughts his song.
Enough said on that; it is much easier for me to admit that I am a sinner who is prone to breaking even the smallest of Laws, and thanking God for sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, so that I could have an eternal relationship with Him through Jesus' sacrificial propitiation.
Sincerely thanking God, over and over, for anything and everything, is the only way I ever managed to complete an "I" Fast for just an ever so small moment.
How does all of that just said relate to God's Grace even in strife? Click on the following to download a true story of a time when I was not at the pinnacle of productivity, if you will. As I read this recount, I frequently revise my thoughts on:
