May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:2 AMP

Following on from yesterday’s post, we’ll be looking at the grace part briefly today.

Thayer’s Greek definitions gives a meaning of grace i believe fits into our Scripture context: “of the merciful kindness by which God exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

A bit wordy but loaded! Paraphrased in my own words, grace is the ability God gives His Children to do what they cannot do i.e. live like and represent Christ, in their own power in this immoral world.

Peter in the concluding chapter of his second epistle (2 Peter 3), talks about the return of Christ, the disaster that would befall the earth when that happens, and how we believers can escape that by being holy in all conversation and godliness (verse 13). He goes on to repeat essentially the same thing in different words ‘be diligent to be found in him in peace, without spot and blameless’ (verse 14) i.e. there’s work to be done if we’re serious about being Christ-like (Philippians 2:12). There’s a way though:

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” 1 Peter 3:18

God shows us how to grow in grace in the Bible as follows:

HUMILITY

“But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).” James 4:6 AMPC

The Scripture says it all! 🙂

DILIGENCE

“But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 AMPC

My understanding of this is: God’s grace selected Paul when he ‘had no chance’ (verse 9), set him in motion and as he was diligent, the grace upon him was multiplied and kept him going further, where many might have become discouraged or given up. God’ll do similar for us if we’re diligent in doing what He’s called us to do, because He doesn’t do favourites (Romans 2:11).

FAITH

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 NIV

Faith makes us access God’s grace. Therefore by keeping our faith, we’re sure to stay ‘graced-up'(Galatians 2:20-21).

NEED/PRAYER

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Here is an open invitation that we don’t take tend to take for what its worth many times. If for example, you’re struggling with any habit and you’ve tried to stop, but to no avail. Simply go to God and say in effect, “Father, i’ve tried to stop doing ‘name shortcoming or addiction‘ in my own strength but i have failed. Please give me the grace to overcome this in Jesus name”. God loves it when we acknowledge our need and dependence on Him and would hear us out; He asked us to come and ask Him!

If you’ve ever studied the Gospels, you’ll notice that these four amongst others, where found and/or exemplified by Jesus Christ; no wonder He enjoyed much of God’s grace:

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth….And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace (John 1:14,16) NKJV

Knowing God is vital to growing in grace.

God bless you 🙂

© Lydia Ndagilaya for PneumaWord

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