Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Maximizing Grace, Part 2.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Passionate, genuine affection for Jesus will lead to all sorts of vows and promises which it is impossible to fulfill.
It is an attitude of mind and heart that sees only the heroic. We are called to be unobtrusive disciples, not heroes.
Jesus does not want us to be specimens, He wants us to be so taken up with Him that we never think about ourselves, and the only impression left on others by our life is that Jesus Christ is having unhindered way (with us).
We can buck up and face the music of a crisis magnificently, but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of the day as a saint, to go through an ordinary, unobtrusive, ignored existence as a saint, unnoted and unnoticeable.
We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy (experiential righteousness) in mean streets, among mean people, surrounded by sordid sinners. That is not learned in five minutes.
-Oswald Chambers
“As long as you practice these things, you will never stumble”
2PE 1:10
You will be amazed at the power and grace of God in your life, you will see it increasing, because your lifestyle is one of glorifying God.
It is the winning believer who is maximizing God’s grace, because he humbled himself towards practicing God’s ways, not his own.
If you are implacable (never satisfied), selfish, demanding, whining, rationalizing, etc… you are living in reversionism.
Even if you are taking in the Word of God.
If your lifestyle is filled with this self-centered mental attitude, you are rejecting the contentment and peace and rest that Christ died for, and God has designed you to receive.
EPH 5:18
“do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”.
Lifestyle is the key to being a winning believer or a losing believer.
Of course we will sin until the day we die, but we must be alert for when something becomes a daily habit.
It is then that it can overtake you, and when will you have time to be filled with the Spirit?
It is then that you become a casualty of the invisible war.
What we practice on a daily basis, whether good or evil, that is our lifestyle.
Make a decision!
Practice something different!
It’s your choice.
No chance of glorifying God. No chance to build spiritual momentum.
No chance to develop the capacity to be blessed out by the grace of God.
Now don’t condemn yourself, and don’t become guilty. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!
Just make the decision to be alert, and go forward one day at a time in the plan of God, by His grace we can do it.
prasso (pras’-so); to "practice", i.e. perform repeatedly or habitually.
But by being alert for the same failures daily, we can flee when necessary, and avoid falling into a negative lifestyle.
We are given new grace one day at a time; daily!
LAM 3:22-23
The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
2. We are given the command to be into the Word of God; daily!
Prov 8:30-36, LUK 19:47, Acts 17:11
Luke 19:47
And He was teaching daily in the temple;
Acts 17:11
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
3. We are told to ask for physical and spiritual food one day at a time; daily!
Matt 6:9-13
4. We are told to deny ourselves and carry our cross; daily!
Luke 9:23
And He was saying to them all, " If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
5. We are told to die to ourselves one day at a time; daily!
1 Cor 15:31
I die daily.
6. We are told that the Pastor-teacher has pressure beyond just studying and teaching; daily pressure!
2 Cor 11:28
Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
So we are alert for what we “practice”, because our daily decisions determine positive momentum in the spiritual life, or negative momentum in the cosmic system.
We see another warning in Ephesians 5 of how our lifestyle can rob us our spiritual momentum, and therefore our inheritance.
You and I have the opportunity of a lifetime.
But how we will spend the blessings of God’s grace?
Our escrow account will not be released to us until we grow in His grace and knowledge and develop the capacity to handle His grace blessings properly.
1JO 2:28-29
So there are times to flee, and times to pursue the things of God. And when we must flee, that is actually a part of running the race for God.
1Cor 9:24-27
So this is what we are exploring; how to maximize God’s grace in the race for the morning star!