"Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"[2nd Timothy2:1]
It is sad that there are so many weak Christians in the body of Christ today . They are offended over something or other and hurt. what we need is the grace of Jesus Christ.
Grace is such a beautiful word. It means unmerited favor. It also means being able to bear up or go through situations which are normally unbearable and difficult. Grace comes only from God.
What is the grace that is in Jesus Christ? God's love towards humanity made Christ Jesus, give up Heaven, come down to Earth as a man, take all the punishment of the sinful humans upon Himself and die the cruel death on the cross, just to bring salvation to us. By this He reconciled the sinful humanity to the Holy God. All this He did for us, not because we deserved it. We were yet sinners, unwilling to to live the way the holy God's laws said. He need not have done that. That love and willingness to suffer for no wrong of His, just to set us free from the clutches of the enemy, who made us sin against God and others , is Christ's grace toward us.
He had to humble Himself. He was selfless.
It is because of the grace that He showed to you and me, today we are saved . We have the assurance that we will spend eternity with this savior in heaven. It is freely granted to any and every one who comes to Him believing in his sacrifice of grace. God tells us, 'I will remember your sins no more,' when we repent and ask forgiveness. It is because of what Christ Jesus did to reconcile us to the holy God!
To be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus, we should be able to show the same grace to those who wrong us, offend or hurt us. Forgive them unconditionally just as Christ forgave. It calls for humility and unselfishness. Forgiveness and grace say to the offender,' I forgive you with out demanding back anything.' Hurt says, 'you hurt me I am going to somehow punish you for it.'
Being unable to bear up or forgive the wrongs of others makes us weak. It gives the enemy a chance to enter into our lives.[2nd Cor.2:10-11] The result will be hardheartedness leading to sin and deception.
Showing the same grace that Christ Jesus showed us will make us soft righteous and pleasing to God which will destroy the power of the enemy over us.
There is strength in Forgiveness and grace.
Hate, unforgiveness and revenge are the enemy's strongholds. Kindness, love and forgiveness will bring them down. God reconciled us to him through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. [2nd Cor.5:18] It is essential to have the grace of Jesus Christ to do this ministry.
It is not easy to develop this nature by ourselves. God has given us the holy Spirit to help us out. By the Holy spirit God's love is shed into our hearts. When we are filled with God's love we can love and show mecy and grace even to our enemies.
' Lord help us to be like Jesus, full of grace to forgive, to set others free and for us to be free.' I pray.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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