I just wanted to take a few minutes to share how grateful I am for the unconditional and faithful love of my Heavenly Father. This past year has been a testament of how faith can totally change how we live our everyday lives and our ideals of what is truly important. God's love and grace have been the one constant in my life and like so many of you I am sure, He has carried me through some difficult times. The closer I get to Him and the more I experience the abundance of His love and grace, it becomes very clear that all that I have ever been, and all that I ever will be is totally one hundred percent a result of God's awesome grace. Every failure I experience causes me to humbly become more dependent upon His grace, causing me to decrease and God to increase in my life. All and every success I have is not mine but rather a result of God's grace at work in me. Spiritual success has nothing to do with me or the things that I do or don't do; except for the choice to both accept and live in grace, or reject the free gift by rejecting God and His Love. I can't add anything to grace and I can't take anything away from it.
All God requires of us is that we abide in Him. John 15 says,"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Without God we can do nothing. The fruits of being a Christian are a result of God's work of grace in our lives, not by our efforts. What we are required to do is abide in Christ as a branch in a tree. A branch remains in the tree, then life giving sap and nutrients come up through the tree giving it life and producing fruit. This represents the work of the Holy Spirit of Love, flowing from God and through us, producing fruits in our life. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law"(Galatians).
God's grace does not depend on our efforts or works it totally depends upon God. In Romans 9:15-16 God says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Therefore it does not depend on our desire or effort, but on God's mercy. If we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us then God does the work of changing our heart to love Him and love others, so that we can be obedient to His Word. "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience the endurance of Christ(2 Thessalonians 3:5)."
We must always understand that our failures and weakness are no match for the grace and love that He has for us. In 2 Corinthians He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore when we recognize our weaknesses it makes way for Christ's power to rest on us. When we, for His sake, delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties we become strong. Our works always end in failure and suffering, demonstrating our weakness, then we come to the end of our self and call out to our Father for compassion. That is when He gives us His strength and ability to overcome, causing us to love Him and trust Him more and more.
It seems now more than ever there are so many who are facing trails and what can seem to be failures. It is so good to know that in the midst of these trials we have the power to become stronger. If we ask God and trust Him, He will, through our faith and His grace, make us stronger than ever before.
I am so thankful and blessed that I serve such an Awesome God!!!
All God requires of us is that we abide in Him. John 15 says,"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Without God we can do nothing. The fruits of being a Christian are a result of God's work of grace in our lives, not by our efforts. What we are required to do is abide in Christ as a branch in a tree. A branch remains in the tree, then life giving sap and nutrients come up through the tree giving it life and producing fruit. This represents the work of the Holy Spirit of Love, flowing from God and through us, producing fruits in our life. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law"(Galatians).
God's grace does not depend on our efforts or works it totally depends upon God. In Romans 9:15-16 God says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Therefore it does not depend on our desire or effort, but on God's mercy. If we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us then God does the work of changing our heart to love Him and love others, so that we can be obedient to His Word. "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience the endurance of Christ(2 Thessalonians 3:5)."
We must always understand that our failures and weakness are no match for the grace and love that He has for us. In 2 Corinthians He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore when we recognize our weaknesses it makes way for Christ's power to rest on us. When we, for His sake, delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties we become strong. Our works always end in failure and suffering, demonstrating our weakness, then we come to the end of our self and call out to our Father for compassion. That is when He gives us His strength and ability to overcome, causing us to love Him and trust Him more and more.
It seems now more than ever there are so many who are facing trails and what can seem to be failures. It is so good to know that in the midst of these trials we have the power to become stronger. If we ask God and trust Him, He will, through our faith and His grace, make us stronger than ever before.
I am so thankful and blessed that I serve such an Awesome God!!!
