Morning, Noon, and Night Part Two
Practicing Grace: Living in the Power of His Presence
Exodus 34:6-7 NIV
6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” Dallas Willard
“A spiritual discipline is a way to access not just your own power (through a kind of resistance training of your willpower muscle) but also God’s power. Spiritual disciplines are the Jesus-designed way of offering yourself to God so that you can draw on what the apostle Paul called “grace” the empowering presence of God’s Spirit.” -John Mark Comer
1 Corinthians 15:9-10 NIV
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 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.
Grace is a kind of synonym for the Spirit of God giving us the capacity to be and do what we can never be or do on our own.
2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
You don’t just receive grace—you become like the One who is Grace. God is gracious and it’s by His grace, He makes us like Himself.
You can’t follow Jesus without Jesus. You can’t live the life of Christ without the presence of Christ.
