James 4:6 & Romans 5:2
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.
What of Today’s Verse…
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” (2Co_3:5). 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” (Joh_15:5).
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” (2Co_3:5). 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” (Joh_15:5).
Also, as noted earlier, humility and faith are relational realities. Neither can be produced by us. They are not the result of human labour. They can only develop as an increasing reality through a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Let us Pray:
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.
Words of Wisdom
Called Of God
God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, “Who will go for us?” The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God’s call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. “Many are called but few are chosen,” that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, “Who will go for us?” It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, “Now, you go.” God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, “Here am I, send me.” Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings.
When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men with every power wide-awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, “Here am I; send me.”
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8
