The Workings of Grace

The workings of grace in the heart are utterly mysterious and unsearchable. We cannot explain why the Word produces effects on one person in a congregation, and not upon another. We cannot explain why, in some cases; with every possible advantage, and in spite of every entreaty people reject the Word and continue dead in trespasses and sins. 

We cannot explain why in other cases; with every possible difficulty, and with no encouragement people are born again and become decided Christians. We cannot define the manner in which the Spirit of God conveys life to a soul, and the exact process by which a believer receives a new nature. All these are hidden things to us. We see certain results, but we can go no further. 

This is deeply instructive. It is humbling no doubt to ministers, and teachers of others. The highest abilities, the most powerful preaching, the most diligent working, cannot command success. God alone can give spiritual life! But it is a truth at the same time, which supplies an admirable antidote to excessive anxiety and despondency. Our principal work is to sow the seed. That done, we may wait with faith and patience for the result. We may leave our work with the Lord. He alone can, if He thinks fit, give success. 

[J. C. Ryle] 

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John 3:8 ... The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Romans 9:15 ...  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ❤

The Gospel of The Grace of God

The heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. The gospel is not a moral code, or religious sentiment. It is the divine proclamation that the thrice-holy God saves guilty Hell-deserving sinners freely, sovereignly, and eternally through the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cruel cross. 

It is the gospel of grace unmerited and undeserved. Grace authored salvation in eternity past. Grace sent the eternal Son, clothed in frail humanity. Grace sustained Him in Gethsemane, nailed Him to the cross, and raised Him in triumph. That same grace now calls the unworthy, convicts the hard-hearted, converts the dead in sin, and keeps them to the end. This gospel lays man in the dust, and crowns Christ with glory. 

It shuts every mouth and saves the worst of sinners. It declares with finality, that salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. The condemned are pardoned. The dead are made alive. Rebels are adopted as sons and daughters of God. Let us proclaim the gospel of grace with boldness, treasure it with reverence, and walk in its power daily. 

The gospel is not man's achievement it is God's mercy. The gospel is the refuge of the desperate, the song of the redeemed, and the everlasting praise of Heaven. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Romans 1:16-17 ...  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Acts 20:24 ... But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Ephesians 2:8 ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:❤

The Only Good ...

Give God all the glory!!

1 Corinthians 15:10 ...  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

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By Grace ...

No one was ever saved because his sins were small. No one was ever rejected on account of the greatness of his sins. Where sin abounds grace shall much more abound. 

[Archibald Alexander]

Ephesians 2:8 ...  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Romans 5:20 ... Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: ❤

The Old Man ...

Why does God not remove the old sinful nature out of the Christian? 

SIN REMAINING IN THE BELIEVER: drives him humbly to confess his own nothingness, excludes all boasting from his tongue, compels him to trust in his God, takes away from him his propensity to trust in himself, leads him to value the precious blood which cleanses him, to prize the Holy Spirit who sanctifies him, to rejoice in the faithfulness, and patience, of God who still continues to be gracious to him. And oh! what songs will the man of God sing when he gets to heaven! How much sweeter will be the music, because of the conflict! How much more glorious the victory, because of the warfare! 

If I could be totally delivered from sin, root and branch, I certainly would; but yet am I conscious that no Christian would glorify God so much in heaven as he now does, if there were not sinned to be contended with. A creature that could not sin, could scarcely show forth much of the praise of God by its holiness; but that the creature can sin, nay, that there is a strong drawing towards sin, and yet the divine grace keeps a man from it, and sanctifies him even to perfection, why this will make the song come swelling up of "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!" 

If no adversaries had been fought, then no victories could have been won; if there were no temptations for us to struggle with, then there would have been no elbowroom for our faith, and no power for the display of the bare arm of God. Many believers would have grown too proud to be borne with, if some infirmity had not plucked the plume from their helmets and made them mourn with brokenness of heart before God. 

God can bring good out of evil by his overruling grace, while on the other hand our good works have often been the greatest curse we have ever had! Good works have puffed us up and so have led us into pride; while our sins, though pulling us down, have, through almighty grace, led us to work for eternity. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Galatians 3:11 ...  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ... Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. ❤

All of Grace

The glory, bliss, and perfection of heaven, whatever it is and all that it includes, is but the consummation of salvation; and it is, in its totality, the gift and work of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. In heaven's glory we shall forever adore and praise our great God for the wondrous mystery of his grace, by which we are saved. Everything in the great work of salvation sets forth the splendor of the grace of the Highest God. 

What do we see in election, predestination, redemption, regeneration, and preservation, but his grace? The whole work of salvation displays God’s rich, free, almighty, irresistible, sovereign, saving grace in Christ! In, salvation as well as in creation, all things are of God, all things are by God, and all things are for God. Unto him alone all praise must be forever! 

[Don Fortner]

Ephesians 2:8-9 ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

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Not as Wicked as Others?

Whatever evil you behold in other men's practices, realize that you have the same evil in your own nature. There is the seed of all sins, of the vilest and worst of sins in the best of men! When you see a drunkard, you may see the seed of that sin in your own nature. When you see an immoral man, you may see the seeds of immorality in your own nature. 

If you are not as wicked as others it is not because of the goodness of your nature, but from the riches of God's grace! Remember this: there is not a worse nature in hell than that which is in you, and it would manifest itself accordingly if the Lord did not restrain it! 

There was one who was a long time tempted to three horrid sins: to be drunk, to lie with his mother, and to murder his father. Being a long time followed with these horrid temptations, at last he thought to get rid of them, by yielding to what he judged the least, and that was to be drunk; but when he was drunk, he did both lie with his mother and murdered his father. Why, such a hellish nature is in every soul that breathes! And did God leave men to act according to their natures, all men would be incarnate devils, and this world a total Hell. 

In your nature you have that that which would lead you with the Pharisees to oppose Christ; and with Judas to betray Christ; and with Pilate to condemn Christ; and with the soldiers to crucify Christ. Oh, what a monster, what a devil you would be should God but leave you to act suitable to that sinful and woeful nature of yours! 

[Thomas Brooks]

1 Corinthians 15:10 ... But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ❤

"The Spirit of Grace"

Grace is one of the most beautiful words in God's Book. The very sound of it is musical to the believer who understands it. It just meets our case, for it tells us that God is inclined to be favorable unto us; more, that he is prepared to shower down the richest blessings upon us; and that what he gives he gives freely, from the love of his own heart. 

Grace is favor shown to the unworthy, without any cause or reason but what is found in God's own bosom. Grace never looks outside of itself for a motive but is its own motive. It dwells in all its fullness in Jesus and is the glory of the gospel scheme. 

But we are not going to dwell upon grace itself but to fix the eye upon the Holy Spirit, as called, "the Spirit of grace." The Spirit is the gift of God's grace one of its greatest gifts. Indeed, it has no greater. Grace gave Jesus, and it gives the Holy Spirit; these gifts are equal in value and importance, as they are equal in nature, power, and glory. Without Jesus, we could have no deliverance from wrath, or title to Heaven; and without the Holy Spirit, we would never realize deliverance or be made fit for glory. 

The Father promised the Spirit to his Son, and the Son bestows the Spirit upon his church, and makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The Father laid up our fortune in Jesus; Jesus has preserved for us all that the Father entrusted to him; but it is the Holy Spirit who makes known to us the wealth which our heavenly Father has laid up for us and conveys the foretastes and pledges of it into our souls. Holy and blessed Spirit, daily bring down into our souls fresh and fuller supplies of grace from the Father and the Son! 

[James Smith]

Zechariah 12:10 ... And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. ❤

Commenting Upon the Bible

Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden every truth is a fragrant flower which we should wear, not on our bosom, but in our heart! David counted the Word "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb". There is that in Scripture which may breed delight. It shows us the way to riches, Deuteronomy 28:8, Proverbs 3:30; to long life, Psalm 34:42; to a Kingdom, Hebrews 12:28. 

Well then may we count those the sweetest hours, which are spent in reading the holy Scriptures. Well may we say with the prophet, "Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart!" (Jeremiah 15:16) Conform to Scripture. Let us lead Scripture lives. 

Oh, that the Bible might be seen printed in our lives! Do what the Word commands. Obedience is an excellent way of commenting upon the Bible. "Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth." (Psalm 86:11) Let the Word be the sundial by which you set your life. What are we the better for having the Scripture, if we do not direct all our speech and actions according to it? What are we the better for the rule of the Word, if we do not make use of it, and regulate our lives by it? What a dishonor is it to religion, for men to live in contradiction to Scripture! The Word is called a "light to our feet".  (Psalm 119:105) It is not only a light to our eyes to mend our sight but to our feet to mend our walk. 

Oh, let us lead Bible lives! Be thankful to God for the Scriptures. What a mercy is it that God has not only acquainted us what His will is, but that He has made it known by writing! The Scripture is our polestar to direct us to Heaven, it shows us every step we are to take. When we go wrong it instructs us; when we go right it comforts us. Adore God's distinguishing grace, if you have felt the power and authority of the Word upon your conscience if you can say as David, "Your Word has quickened me." (Psalm 119:50)

Christian, bless God that He has not only given you His Word to be a rule of holiness but His grace to be a principle of holiness. Bless God that He has not only written His Word, but sealed it upon your heart, and made it effectual. Can you say it is of divine inspiration, because you have felt it to be of lively operation? 

Oh, free grace! That God should send out His Word and heal you. That He should heal you, and not others! That the same Scripture which to them is a dead letter, should be to you a savor of life! 

[Thomas Watson] 

Psalm 119:97 ...  O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. ❤

Christ ~ The Incarnate Word

The Lord Jesus Christ assumed our nature, that He might sympathize with us in our sorrows; obtain our everlasting deliverance from sin, Satan, and Hell; and supply all our needs according to His glorious riches. (Philippians 4:19) He was rich yet for our sakes He became poor that we, through His poverty, might be rich. Unparalleled benevolence! (2 Corinthians 8:9) Unexampled love! Savior Jesus! fill us with wonder, gratitude, and love! He was made flesh; He wrapped His Godhead in a human form; He became one with us, and one of us that we might be one with Him, and one with the Father and the Holy Spirit through Him. 

He dwelt among His disciples, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Full of truth to inform their judgments; full of grace to sanctify their hearts. He had truth to delight them, and grace to supply them. He is still full of grace and truth. He has grace to pardon all sin; grace to sanctify your polluted heart; grace to conquer your powerful corruptions; grace to subdue your rebellious will, and to bring every thought into subjection to His own blessed will. He gives freely without money and without price; He gives cheerfully without upbraiding; He gives frequently without complaining. 

Have you been thinking that your attainments are but small, that your evidence are but weak, that your spirituality is questionable? Jesus is full of grace! He is a fountain ever flowing a fountain to which you are welcome, for He says, "If any man thirsts let him come, and take of the fountain of life freely." (John 7:37)

The promises He has made are truth, they flowed from his heart; they express His mind at present; and He will make them good to every seeking soul. The supplies He sends us; the answers He gives us are confirmations of the truth of His word; they are the overflowing's of the grace that is in Him. He delights to bestow; He rejoices to impart; He cannot deny what He has promised. He will consult your welfare, and perhaps make you wait; but He will not falsify His word and leave you to want. Look at Jesus then, as full of grace, full of truth. You never read of His being full of wrath, full of vengeance, full of indignation; but you do read that He is full of grace, rich in mercy, plenteous in compassion, and waiting to be gracious! 

He wears your nature in Heaven. He is still as kind, as tender, as loving as when He had compassion on the widow of Nain, wept at the grave of Lazarus, or prayed for His cruel murderers. He is Jesus still the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) changes not, and therefore we are not consumed. He still says, "Look unto me, and be saved, all you end of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." (Isaiah 45:22)

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so is the Son of man lifted up; that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. All things are delivered unto Him by His Father and He will use all to protect your person, supply your needs, and carry you safely to the realms of peace. Lord, we adore your boundless grace, The heights and depths unknown, Of pardon, life, and joy, and peace, In your beloved Son! 

Oh, wondrous gift of love divine, Oh source of every good! Jesus, in You what glories shine, how rich your flowing blood! Come, all you are pining, hungry poor, The Savior's bounty taste; Behold a never-failing store for every willing guest. Here shall our every need receive A free and full supply; He has unmeasured bliss to give, and joys that never die! 

[James Smith]

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The only thing that makes you differ!

Christian! The only thing that makes you differ from the most debauched being that pollutes the earth, or from the vilest fiend that gnaws his chains in Hell, is the free grace of God! 

[Octavius Winslow]

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1 Corinthians 4:7 ... For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 

1 Corinthians 15:10 ...  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ❤

The Golden Thread of Grace!

Besides His grace, God manifests His other divine attributes in the salvation of every sinner: The wisdom of God devised the plan of salvation. The power of God executes in us the work of salvation. The immutability of God preserves and carries on salvation. In fact, all the attributes of God are magnified in the salvation of a sinner. But at the same time the text is most accurate, since grace is the fountainhead of salvation, and is most conspicuous throughout every aspect of it. 

Grace is to be seen in our election, for "there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and if by grace then it is no more of works." Grace is manifestly revealed in our redemption. It is utterly inconceivable that any soul could have deserved to be redeemed with the precious sin-atoning blood of Christ. The mere thought is abhorrent to every holy mind. Our effectual calling is also of grace, for "He has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began." By grace also, we are justified. Over and over again, the apostle insists upon this grand and fundamental truth. We are not justified before God by our works in any measure, but by faith alone. We see the golden thread of grace running through the whole of the Christian's history, from his election before all worlds, to his admission into Heaven's glory. 

There is no point in the history of a saved soul, upon which you can put your finger and say, "In this instance, he is saved by his own deserving." Every single blessing which we receive from God, comes to us by the channel of free grace alone. Boasting is excluded, because deserving's are excluded. Merit is an unknown word in the Christian vocabulary! "By grace are you saved." This clear and unqualified statement sweeps away all supposition of any deserving on our part, or any thought of our meriting salvation. We stand before God as condemned criminals, when we come to Him for mercy. We are already lost, "already condemned," and our only course is to cast ourselves upon the sovereign mercy of God. "By grace are you saved." This is true of every saint on earth, and every saint in Heaven. 

It is altogether true, and without a single exception. No man is saved, except as the result of the free grace and unbought mercy of God. We are entirely and altogether saved, because the Lord "will have mercy on whom He will have mercy," and He wills to bestow His favor on unworthy men. Though I am as repulsive as the devil with sin, and as vile as the devil with innate depravity yet, if the Lord looked upon me in mercy, then He would forgive my every sin, and change my nature, and make me as bright a seraph as Gabriel before His throne! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

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Titus 3:5 ... Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

1 Corinthians 15:10 ...  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. ❤

The Sins of The Saints

Bernard of Clairvaux once mentioned an old man who, upon hearing about any professing Christian who fell into sin, would say to himself: "He fell today; I may fall tomorrow!" The apostle Paul commended the same mindset when he wrote, "let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12) 

There is great wisdom in not trusting our own ability to stand. When I was a boy, my father would often say, "The person I trust least of all is myself." It should shock us to hear a professing Christian say, "I would never do that," or "How could anyone do that?" Consider the following: 

If Adam, an innocent man, could choose a piece of fruit over the infinitely valuable God (Genesis 3:6);  if Noah, the most righteous man of his day, could get so drunk that he passed out naked before his sons in his tent (Genesis 9:21);  if Abraham, the most faithful man of his day, could father a child with his wife's handmaiden (Genesis 16:1-4) and twice hand his wife over to other men (Genesis 12:11-15; 20:1-2);  if Sarah, the mother of promise, could laugh at the words of the God of promise and then lie to Him about doing so (Genesis 18:9-15);  if "righteous Lot" could greedily pick the most materialistic and sexually depraved place for himself and his family to live (Genesis 13:8-13), and could hand his daughters over to the sexually perverse men of the city (Genesis 19:4-8);  if Isaac, the son of promise, could show partiality to his oldest son because he liked his hunting skills (Genesis 25:28), and he, too, could hand his wife over to another man (Genesis 26:6-11); and if Jacob, the namesake of Israel, could swindle his brother for a birthright (Genesis 25:29-34), then so could I. 

If Moses, the meekest man on the planet, could act in such sinful anger and unbelief that God would not let him into the Promised Land (Numbers 20:7-12);  if his successor Joshua, could disobediently covenant with pagans (Joshua 9);  if Gideon, the mighty man of valor, could fall into idolatry at the end of his life (Judges 8:22-27); and if Samson, the strongest man who ever lived, could be defeated by wine and women (Judges 14-16), then so could I. if David, the man after God's own heart, could commit adultery and premeditate the murder of one of his mighty men (2 Samuel 11);  if Solomon, the wisest man, could foolishly allow his heart to be led astray by a thousand women to worship foreign gods (1 Kings 11);  if Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, could charge God with deceiving His people (Jeremiah 4:10); and if Elijah, a prophet of Israel, could self-righteously run from the mission of God (Jonah 1-3), then so could I. 

 If John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, could doubt the identity of the One to whom he bore witness (Matthew 11:2-3); and if the Apostle Peter could try to stop Jesus from going to the cross (Matthew 16:21-23), deny Jesus (Luke 22:54-61), argue with the Lord about the gospel and its implications (John 13:6-10; Acts 10:9-16), and support division in the church over the doctrine of justification by faith alone (Galatians 2:11-21), then so could I. 

If James and John could use Jesus to get to the top (Mark 10:35-37) and could want to call fire down from Heaven on those who did not believe the gospel (Luke 9:51-55); and if the Apostle John could twice fall down to worship angels (Revelation 19:9-10; Revelation 22:8-9), then so could I. 

We must resist the temptation of thinking that we can stand in our own strength. We must depend on the grace of the One who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). The greatest believers are subject to great weaknesses. In no way do these truths give a license to sin; instead, they give a sober realization that by nature, "nothing good dwells in us." (Romans 7:18) 

We must distrust ourselves, bear with the weak, and hold fast to Christ. We must flee to our Great High Priest, who was tempted in all points as we are, yet never sinned. We must go to Him for grace and mercy to withstand temptations, and we must go to Him for grace and mercy if we fall.

[Nick Batzig]  

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1 Corinthians 15:10 ...  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Psalm 119:117 ...  Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. ❤

Icing a Cake!!

John stated in 1 John 1:8 that if we say we have no sin we lie. The issue is not a lifestyle of sinful behavior, that’s problematic in of itself. The issue is understanding and breaking free from the law which can only be accomplished when we understand the message of the cross. 

Once we understand or grasp what the cross means, apply it to our life, that’s when grace comes into play. We pride ourselves in church, doing “churchy” things, but we fail to understand grace by the cross. Because the cross is the means by which we are set free. Religion will never accommodate that, it can’t. 

It’s like icing a cake, every time turn it you find that you missed a spot. That’s works. Grace covers us completely. 

[Christopher Gregory]

Galatians 5:1 ... Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Galatians 3:17-18 ... And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Romans 8:2 ... For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. ❤

A Work of Grace

There is a just mixture of hope and fear, which every Christian would cherish in contemplating his own experience, and the state of the Church of Christ. On the one hand there certainly is ground for fear, whether we judge from analogy, or from what we behold with our eyes: What multitudes of blossoms are annually cut off by frost! 

Of those that set, how many are blighted by an eastern wind! Of those that grow, how many are blown off by storms and tempests! Of those that hang upon the tree, how many, when gathered, prove rotten at the core! Thus, it is seen in the religious world: Many make a fair show for a little while, and then fall off from their profession. Others are blighted and come to naught. Others look well for a season but are beaten down by storms of persecution and temptation. 

And of those who maintain their profession to the end, how many will at last be found unsound at heart! If this casts a damp upon our joys, and teaches us to moderate our expectations, it need not, it ought not, to rob us of all our confidence: for though sound fruit may be blown off from a tree, no sound Christian shall ever be separated from the Lord Jesus! 

Of this the Apostle was fully persuaded: and, under this conviction, he thanked God for the converts at Philippi, whose sincerity he had no reason to doubt, and of whose perseverance in the divine life he therefore entertained the most optimistic hopes. 

[Charles Simeon] 

Philippians 1:6 ... Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

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Not Works, But Grace

Going to church, reading the Bible, giving, praying, mission trips, are all good habits but they mean nothing compared to grace. Works, regardless how religious they are won’t keep you in the faith, but grace will. 

[Christopher Gregory]

Ephesians 2:8-9 ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

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Growth in Grace!!

Growth in grace is evidenced by a more habitual vigilance against besetting sins and temptations, and by greater self-denial in regard to personal indulgence. A growing conscientiousness in regard to what may be called minor Christian duties is also a good sign. (The counterfeit of this is an over-scrupulous conscience, which sometimes haggles at the most innocent gratifications, and has led some to hesitate about taking their daily food.) 

Increasing spiritual mindedness is sure evidence of progress in piety; and this will always be accompanied by increasing deadness to the world. Continued aspirations for God, indicate the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by whose agency all progress in sanctification is made. Increasing solicitude for the salvation of men, sorrow on account of their sinful and miserable condition, and a disposition tenderly to warn sinners of their danger evince a growing state of piety. 

It is also strong evidence of growth in grace, when you can bear injuries and provocations with meekness, and when you can from the heart, desire the temporal and eternal welfare of your bitterest enemies. An entire and confident reliance on the promises and providence of God, however dark may be your horizon, or however many difficulties environ you is a sign that you have learned to live by faith. Humble contentment with your condition, though it is one of poverty and obscurity shows that you have profited by sitting at the feet of Jesus. 

Diligence in the duties of our secular calling, with a view to the glory of God is evidence not to be despised. Indeed, there is no surer standard of spiritual growth, than a habit of aiming at the glory of God in everything! Increasing love to the brethren is a sure sign of growth; for as brotherly love is a proof of the existence of grace, so is the exercise of such love a proof of vigor in the divine life. A victory over besetting sins by which the person was frequently led away shows an increased vigor in grace. Sometimes the children of God grow faster when in the fiery furnace than elsewhere. As metals are purified by being cast into the fire so saints have their dross consumed and their graces brightened, by being cast into the furnace of affliction! 

[Archibald Alexander] 

2 Peter 3:18 ... But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

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God's Grace!!

If you're thinking that you don't deserve a second chance from God, it's important to remember that you didn't deserve the first one either.

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Romans 3:24 ... For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 5:8 ... But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ...  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. ❤

Treasures of His Grace!!

Bring your perplexities to God, and He will guide them. Bring your needs to God, and He will supply them. Bring your mountains to God, and He will level them. Bring your sins to God, and He will forgive them. Bring your sorrows, trials, and temptations to God and He will sustain you under and will bring you through them; to the praise and glory of His great Name, as the "God of all grace." 

Your supplies may be exhausted, but not His fullness. Your need may press, but there is no pressure on His sufficiency. Your power may be limited, but His is illimitable. Your grace may be shallow, but His is fathomless. And you may ask, "From where will my next supply come?" while, at the moment that the anxious question is trembling upon your lip the supply that is to silence it is laid up in the inexhaustible treasures of His grace and will be sent just at the moment that will awaken in you the sweetest song, and yield to Him the richest glory! 

[Octavious Winslow] 

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Psalm 23:1 ... The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Philippians 4:19 ... But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. ❤

Grace or The Flesh?

 Religion teaches that repentance demands you change.

Grace teaches that repentance is trusting God to change you.

Religion wants you to trust your flesh.

God wants you to trust His grace.

The choice is yours.

[Christopher Gregory]

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John 6:63 ... It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

2 Corinthians 7:10 ... For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

1 Peter 5:10-11 ... But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. ❤