Growing a Greater Grace

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – October 4, 2017

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.  2 Peter 3:18

Grace gets us to God. A bridge for our belief, a network to connect us with Christ, and a road to righteousness. Grace is our Savior’s soup for the soul: warming our affections, feeding our faith and meeting our every need. Saving grace is birthed at salvation, but sustaining grace needs nourishment. Like food we can haphazardly ingest grace, forgetting our faith famishes without its spiritual sustenance, or we can slowly chew every bite and appreciate its complex flavors. Juices of joy trickle down our heart, tasty truth feeds our hungry faith, the drink of gratitude quenches our thirsty desires, while the sweet dessert of hope comforts sorrows, calms our fears.

Peter gives us a remedy for recognizing false teaching in understanding and applying Scripture: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Focus on Jesus. What does it mean to grow in the grace of Jesus? Growth in grace starts by making Jesus Lord and Savior over our life. Grace takes root in a surrendered soul. Now as a soldier of Christ we are equipped to defeat the enemies of worldly wisdom with the weapons of godly wisdom. Grace instructs us in the ways of the Lord outlined in His Living Word. Grace helps us know God!

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20).

Grace delivered us from a corrupt world and grace will keep us from going back to a more corrupted world. But if we drift into graceless living driven only by our surface understanding of Scripture and motivated by our own desires, we slowly act like we don’t need God, unless of course we have a crisis–then we once again cry out for help. Better to stay tethered to trust in Jesus than to gradually walk away into a dark, graceless existence. A greater grace grows our dependence on the Lord. The more we grow in grace, the more we understand God’s will.

Our ongoing, authentic grace encounter with Christ humbles our hearts and protects us from the pride of self righteousness. There is nothing more ugly than a proud Christian who looks down on those who can’t meet their standards, and nothing more beautiful than a grace filled Christian who bends down to lift up the broken and kneels down to pray against their own proud heart. Growing a greater grace gets us closer to God. Grace grows deep roots in a humble heart watered by prayer and cultivated by the word of Christ. We grow a greater grace for the gospel to grow!

“In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace” (Colossians 1:6).

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