The Lord has given me at least four dreams pointing to the word GRACE. That’s loud. I’ve seen a baby named grace, picked up my dog named Gracie and heard a song playing overhead that was called “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” I’m diving into this topic of grace and I hope you will as well. Paul had a difficulty, a thorn in the flesh, that he had to deal with and it wasn’t leaving. The answer God gave him was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” If this one word “GRACE” is sufficient for us in all trials, then I want to realize what it is in all it’s glory!
Today, as I sat down in my chair I heard “But he gives more grace…” . I found this in my concordance in James 4. When I study, I ask God questions and pause waiting for answers. He leads me on what seems a rabbit trail, but God is no rabbit! He knows exactly what he’s doing.
I went to James 4 and know I could interpret this in so many different ways if I leaned on my on mind, so I asked, “What’s important to YOU Lord?” Then I read….
James 4:1-3 “1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Realization – James 4 shows what’s important to the world. There are things we think we need so it causes all of this angst! Some of them we DO need, yet God shows us that when we bear this fruit on the tree of our life we are forgetting to look at the Lord.
“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want so you quarrel and fight.”
I read this and asked…. What causes this Lord?
Romans 8:6 The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” … A mindset of death is futility. Futility leads us to give up, to lose hope. Then, all we see from is lack, what we don’t have. We consider the things of this world important and notice what we have or don’t have. We then have no contentment and begin to look for things that will make us happy. What will fill the void? Where is there a quick fix to satisfy my longing, to bring a thought of joy in my weariness.
The scripture then says this in James 4:2 . “YET you do not have because you do not ask.” It is as simple as this.
It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…
Luke 12:32-34 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Pause on this verse and speak it to your soul. Meditate on each scripture. It is so powerful!
“It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
This is so much more than we imagine. Our Father can only give what he owns. What does he own?
Psalm 24 “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world,
and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it.”
Pause throughout as I write. Speak these scriptures aloud and let them become images in your mind. REALize the magnitude of what is being said. That is, let it become REAL to you.
The Kingdom – This is what the Lord HAS in heaven. A King has a Kingdom. It is all that is in his realm of imagination and power. He is the creator of the universe. He spoke and water formed and land appeared. He is unchanging. He is still creator and his abilities and power have not changed since the beginning of time. Psalm 115 reveals something quite amazing. Though God owns all he has given the earth to mankind. Gifted it. Put us here to steward it but he has not withheld his power or his resources as we do that. Man handed over authority to satan by honoring his voice in the Garden of Eden, but Christ died to give us authority in his name. The earth is like the family business. God put us here and we steward it. It’s resources are ours. The profit is his glory! It is all for his glory, so we should not be ashamed to ask for what will give God glory!
Psalm 115
14May the Lord cause you to flourish,
both you and your children.
15May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
16The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth he has given to mankind.
17It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
those who go down to the place of silence;
18it is we who extol the Lord,
both now and forevermore.
It can be hard to understand that something is there when we cannot see it yet, but this is what faith does. It causes us to see what is not apparent yet, but that God has already put in place in heaven. Let me help you with an example all of us can relate to. As a parent, I don’t know how many times my kids have needed something and not known where it is. They can look in the closet and not SEE towels right in front of them at times. Frustration sets in, angst, and they run all over looking for what they need. However, I can see it right there. When they ask me, I just point it out and it becomes apparent that it was there all along. Seeing the Kingdom is like this.
God wants to help his children see what they already have by his grace through faith. This is what the whole Bible is about, story after story of revelation of what God does that is contrary to what we see. Sometimes we can’t see the Kingdom because we don’t know it comes only through Christ and what he did on the cross. Humility is receiving this truth and knowing we cannot accomplish all these things in our own strength, no matter how hard we try to find a way on our own. Our joy comes in surrender to the One who paid it all for us. That payment of his holy blood on the cross caused “remission” of our sin, and thus no guilt remains. No finger pointing, except to show us what God has planned for us! Nothing we have done can be more than what the cost was. What was I worrying about? I can’t remember…
His grace is sufficient for me. For his power is made perfect when I see my weakness and realize his strength. To God be the glory. Amen.
I thank you, Lord, for what we have in the family of God. I thank you Jesus for your willingness to demonstrate the power of sacrifice. You gave up all, but knew that doing so would bring you so much more! Thank you for coming. Thank you for overcoming on our behalf. Oh, how amazing that we would be called children of God!
Father, I thank you that all we need to do is ask. Forgive me for every moment of unbelief and help me see this way daily. Show me what’s in your plan for me. Show me what to ask. Lead me in the way that is right in your eyes and keep me from looking down at the flesh so I don’t stumble over it. I lift my eyes to the heavens from where my help comes from. Your joy comes back down in return Lord! I see what you have and forget what is passing away. Teach me to speak out what I see in heaven that it may manifest on this earth and bring “thy kingdom come”.
Anne Huffman 