Monday Morning Encouragement - - Grow in Grace

 

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." 1 Peter 3:18

The grace of God is potent, and a gift that we should never take for granted. It is by His grace that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9), and it is God's grace that is sufficient to meet all the challenges that may come our way (2 Corinthians 12:9). We don't deserve God's grace, yet out of His great love for us He extends it. Knowing this should prompt us to praise and worship Him, and to purposely live in a way that honors Him. In other words, to live in obedience to our God.

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about "cheap grace": 

“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. . . . Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Bonhoeffer defined costly grace, in contrast, as “the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him” (quoted in Christianity Today, February 7, 1994, p. 39).

The grace of God is extravagant, just as His love is. Jesus gave His life so that we can experience this amazing grace. When we allow this truth to fully sink into our hearts and minds, we will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will look at our lives differently. No longer will we seek pleasure in earthly goods. Our pleasure will come from our relationship with Christ. The satisfaction of knowing Him, and growing in that knowledge. Becoming more like Him every day, and so fulfilling the directive to "grow in grace."

Today's music video Grow in Grace is a hymn that "serves as a reminder to continually grow in our faith and to keep our eyes fixed on the eternal promises of God."

I love you, I'm thinking of you, and I'm praying for you.