So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead. Rom. 5:21 (NLT)
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Cor. 15:10 (NIV)
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 2:1 (NIV)
Dear heavenly Father, the more I read your Word the more I see your grace as the most heart-transforming, life-reorienting power in the universe. It’s no tame kitten, but a disruptive kingdom Through the gospel, you haven’t just rescued us from the vanity of self-righteousness and the futility of legalism; you have placed us in a whole new dominion and have released a power in our lives that claims all things and changes everything.
I certainly hear that refrain, loud and clear, in Paul’s words, “his grace to me was not without effect.” Sometimes when I read Paul’s letters and consider his journeys in Acts, I honestly wonder if I really want to be as “free” as Paul was—free to live and die for Jesus; free to become all things to all people, that they might rest in your glorious salvation; free to count all things loss for the excellency of knowing Christ. Father, forgive me for wanting homogenized, domesticated, predictable grace.
Your plan isn’t merely to get us into heaven one day, but to get more of heaven of us every day. Grace doesn’t just free us from bad and broken religion, pragmatism and moralism, pietism and quietism, and a bunch of other “isms.” It frees us for no longer living for ourselves but for the one who died for us, who ever lives for us, and who is coming back for us—Jesus.
Father, bring a “no-holds-barred,” “no-prisoners-taken,” all-things-renewing grace revival to our hearts and churches. Rescue us from ourselves, from our little stories and from our little fiefdoms. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus triumphant and tender name.
