09-21-58 to 09-21-08

Mat 6:9 - After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mat 6:9 - After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mat 6:10 - Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.

Mat 6:11 - Give us this day our daily bread.

Mat 6:12 - And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:13 - And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

This simple prayer—when prayed in sincerity—will bring you into personal relationship with God.

Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that I need Your help. I am not able to change my life or circumstances through my own efforts. I know that I have made some wrong decisions in my life, and I turn away from those ways of thinking and acting that are not producing positive outcomes in my life.

I believe You have provided a way for me to receive Your blessings and help in my life. That way is Jesus. Right now, I believe and confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and give me a new life born of Your Spirit. I thank You for saving me and I ask for Your grace and mercy in my life. I pray this in Jesus' name.

Today's Promise from the Bible

John 15:4-5 - Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Reflection - We cannot do anything without the Lord. He is the vine; and just as the branches receive their life-giving nutrients through the vine, so we as Christians receive the things we need for life from Christ. When a branch is apart from its source of life, it is dead. And so it is with us—until we are grafted onto that eternal and life-giving vine of Christ. We abide in Christ by our faith in Him and the salvation he offers. By this faith, even we shall bear fruit.

Access to Grace through Humility and Faith

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble…through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. (James 4:6; Romans 5:2)

Thus far in our daily meditations on growing in the grace of God, we have examined various areas of biblical truth: such as, the Old Covenant of law, the New Covenant of grace, God's sufficiency for godly living, living by the promises of God, and Old Testament saints who lived by God's grace. Now, we return to an extended consideration of how we avail ourselves of the glorious riches of God's grace. As noted earlier in our studies, God's grace is accessed through humility and faith.

If we desire to live by God's grace, we must be willing to renounce pride and to walk in humility. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The Lord is opposed to the path of self-sufficiency. When we pridefully assume that we can produce the kind of life God calls us to live, spiritual progress is prevented. Humility involves agreeing with God's pronouncements concerning our inadequacies. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves" (2 Corinthians 3:5a). The person who is willing to walk humbly before the Lord has an accurate understanding of our comprehensive need for the Lord to work in and through our lives. "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5c).

Along with humility regarding ourselves, God wants us to walk in faith regarding Him. The Lord wants to work in our lives by His incomparable grace. Faith accesses grace: "through whom [Jesus] also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand." The Lord is pleased by the path of "Christ-dependency."

Whenever we face any issue of life by faith in Jesus Christ, we are drawing upon the abounding grace of the Lord. When we dependently accept that God can produce the kind of life He calls us to live, spiritual progress is assured. Faith involves agreeing with God's pronouncements concerning Him being our adequacy: "but our sufficiency is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5b). The person who is willing to walk in faith toward the Lord has an accurate understanding of His comprehensive ability to work in and through our lives. "He who abides in Me…bears much fruit" (John 15:5b).

Also, as noted earlier, humility and faith are relational realities. Neither can be produced by us. They are not the result of human labor. They can only develop as an increasing reality through a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Dear Lord, I humbly admit my own insufficiency to produce the life You want me to live. Nevertheless, I confidently confess Your grace as my sufficient resource for abundant fruitfulness. Lord, I want to know You better, that humility and faith might be growing realities in my life, Amen.

"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon." —Judges 7:20

Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine.

Let your light shine before men; let your good works be such, that when men look upon you, they shall know that you have been with Jesus. Then there must be the sound, the blowing of the trumpet. There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified. Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears. Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon's watchword, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!"

God must do it, it is His own work. But we are not to be idle; instrumentality is to be used—"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" If we only cry, "The sword of the Lord!" we shall be guilty of an idle presumption; and if we shout, "The sword of Gideon!" alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh: we must blend the two in practical harmony, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" We can do nothing of ourselves, but we can do everything by the help of our God; let us, therefore, in His name determine to go out personally and serve with our flaming torch of holy example, and with our trumpet tones of earnest declaration and testimony, and God shall be with us, and Midian shall be put to confusion, and the Lord of hosts shall reign for ever and ever.

Today's Promise from the Bible

Romans 10:13 - For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Reflection - How bountiful the mercy of our Lord that He should not only allow salvation, but promise it to those who seek Him. Praise God for your everlasting life! Praise the Lord that He drew you to seek Him!

Waiting on the Lord, Hoping in the Lord

I will wait on the LORD…and I will hope in Him…Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!…Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD. (Isaiah 8:17; Psalm 27:14; 31:24)

Living by waiting on the Lord offers another helpful perspective on living by grace. Waiting on the Lord is the same spiritual reality as hoping in the Lord. "I will wait on the LORD…and I will hope in Him." Waiting on the Lord is not merely about waiting (that is, allowing time to pass). Rather, it concerns humbly placing our hope and expectations in the Lord God as time is passing. This is what living by grace comprises (looking to the Lord to work on our behalf and within our hearts).

Waiting on the Lord (hoping in the Lord) is a privilege that is appropriate for every area of our lives. Furthermore, wondrous consequences result from hoping in our God. "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!…Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD." When we place our hope in the Lord (waiting for Him to work in our lives and circumstances), He brings us spiritual courage and spiritual empowering within our inner man.

Those who wait on the Lord have a distinctively different destiny than the wicked, than the evildoers. "For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth…Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it" (Psalm 37:9, 34). Evildoers (the wicked, who have no interest in the way of salvation) end up cut off. They lose everything that they attempted to accomplish in the developing of their personal earthly kingdoms. They thought they could take over a portion of this world, which belongs to our Creator God. Instead, they lose it all. They are cut off forever from their achievements, as well from the God who made them. On the other hand, those who hope in the Lord inherit all of creation, as well as an eternal relationship with their Creator Redeemer.

Truly, "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him" (Lamentations 3:25). Therefore, let us "hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption" (Psalm 130:7). Yes, let us "hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever" (Psalm 131:3).

My Creator Redeemer, I want to live all my days waiting on You, hoping in You. What growing expectations You give me as I hope in You. I anticipate courage, inner strength, Your abundant goodness, an eternal inheritance, and (above all) an everlasting relationship with You. Praise Your name!