Seeking the Life in Christ: 2025

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Wondrous, Overwhelming, Amazing, Incredible, Extraordinary, Grace

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 18, 2025

Wondrous, Overwhelming, Amazing, Incredible, Extraordinary, Grace

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?”

Matthew 18:12

In Matthew 18, Jesus taught about our life together as the church. Jesus sees each church, each congregation as a microcosm of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is leading us to that place where our congregations reflect to the world what it is like to live under the reign of God. Like any good builder, Jesus knows that His church must be built upon a solid foundation. In Matthew 16, Jesus laid the first foundation stone for His church. He said he would build His church upon the Confession of Faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. If the first foundation stone is about Jesus, the second foundation stone is about us. The strength of this foundation stone is not so much that we are the children of God, as it is in how we became the children of God.

Jesus is not the Messiah because he did all the things the Messiah was supposed to do. Jesus is the Messiah because of the incarnation. He is God’s only begotten Son.

In a similar way, we are not the children of God because we behave the way the children of God should behave. We are the children of God because we have been forgiven of our sin by the wondrous, overwhelming, amazing, incredible, extraordinary, awesome, marvelous grace of God.

The children of God aren’t meant to shuffle around muttering “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Our destiny is to forevermore sing, and dance and shout, and rejoice and celebrate and delight in the truth that we are the beloved of God, through and through, first, last and always, by the wondrous, overwhelming, amazing, incredible, extraordinary, awesome, marvelous grace of God.

My Takeaway: When we remember who we are, and how we got here, living together in the way Jesus described is as natural as breathing. So also is staying in the grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life. The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Your Innocence Radiates Like the Dawn

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 17, 2025

Your Innocence Radiates Like the Dawn

Commit everything you do to the Lord.

Trust him, and he will help you.

He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

Psalm 37:5-6

The psalmist, an old and very wise teacher, crafted this psalm as an acrostic poem, the stanzas of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Basically, the psalm is a collection of wise sayings that contrast the lives of the wicked with the lives of those who are faithful to God. The psalmist’s wisdom and experience have taught him that the spoils of the wicked are “like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither” (Psalm 37:2), but the blessings of God are eternal.

The essential message of the psalm is in verses 5-6:

“Commit everything you do to the Lord.

Trust him, and he will help you.

He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.”

This is a very profound, yet simple, way to pattern your life. First, you commit your life to God. Second, you exercise faith in God by trusting Him with your life. Third, God will act. The psalmist is not very specific about how God will act, but the description is rather breathtaking. The psalmist is trying to describe the wonder, beauty and awe associated with being in the presence of God. The reward for faithfulness to God is being in perfect peace as you rest in the presence of your Heavenly Father. The psalmist refers to the blessing of God as, “The godly will possess the land and will live there forever” (Psalm 37:29). This means the reward is eternal.

Our culture bombards us with messages that rewards and blessings must be tangible and received here and now. But God’s blessings are His presence with us, now and forever.

My Takeaway: Because of God’s faithfulness we can sing, “The godly will possess the land and will live there forever” (Psalm 37:29), and our singing will help us stay in God’s grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 16, 2025

So Christ Has Truly Set Us Free

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 16, 2025

So Christ Has Truly Set Us Free

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Romans 3:23-24

In today’s passage, Paul presented two foundational principles for our quest to make the life in Christ our way of life. First, we agree with Paul; we have sinned and fallen short of God’s purpose in our life. Secondly, God so loves us, He provided His solution for our predicament. These two principles lead us into the ultimate truth of the Gospel: what is true for Jesus is true for the people of Jesus. Through my faith in the faithfulness of Jesus fulfilling his mission as God's Messiah, I become one of Jesus' people. Because Jesus is in a right relationship with God, I too am in a right relationship with God, because what is true for Jesus is true for me.

All of this is made possible through the marvelous grace of God which I receive through my faith in the faithfulness of Jesus. Christ Jesus freed us from the penalty for our sins (verse 24). Too often, Christians misinterpret ‘bad things’ coming into their lives as God punishing them for their sins. Banish the thought! Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sins!

My Takeaway: Christ has truly set us free to live in his grace for today. “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1).

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Friday, June 13, 2025

The Choice

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 13, 2025

The Choice

. . . choose today whom you will serve.

Joshua 24:15

A week ago, our church concluded a several month study of the book of Joshua. Joshua’s closing challenge to Israel came at the conclusion of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land and the division of the land for the twelve tribes. A simple way to understand the book of Joshua is that it is one miracle after another. God continually shows himself strong and faithful to his covenant with Israel.

Even so, Joshua challenged the people, “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?” (24:15) I think his challenge is insightful to the human condition. How easy it is for us to slip away from God and form our own golden calf, something visible or tangible or more palpable to our sensibilities. There is so much we can see and touch that tempts us. The hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, puts it bluntly:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love.

My Takeaway: Joshua answered his own challenge: “But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” (24:15). The hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, echoes Joshua’s words,

“here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.”

Yes Lord, here is my heart seeking to stay in your grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Created To Be Like God

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 12, 2025

Created To Be Like God

. . . let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Ephesians 4:23-24

Earlier this year, during Lent, Cheryl and I began to use the Daily Office in our morning prayers together. This routine includes several passages of scripture, confessions, intercessions, Collects and Canticles. All these forms of prayers extoll the virtues, the grace and the mercy that is our God. All of these are being used by God to help us put on our new nature. We were created to be like God and this discipline is moving us along to become truly righteous and holy. As I have noted before, sometimes it seems I am moving along toward God’s purpose for me at a snail’s pace, but nevertheless,

… we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (The Message)

My Takeaway: I have found one of the mostly difficult truths to grasp, to own, is that God cares for me. And, that I was created to be like God. It is much easier to own that I am a sinner who falls short of the glory of God. Even so, God said I was created to be like him. I choose to, by God’s grace, accept this as reality in my life. How about you?

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Created To Be Like God

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 12, 2025

Created To Be Like God

. . . let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Ephesians 4:23-24

… we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (The Message)

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

God Is on My Side

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 11, 2025

God Is on My Side

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:7

Recently, in our morning prayers we read Psalm 56. Two verses in this Psalm always catch my attention:

8You keep track of all my sorrows.

You have collected all my tears in your bottle.

You have recorded each one in your book.

9bThis I know: God is on my side!

I wonder if the Apostle Peter was remembering Psalm 56 when he wrote the line in First Peter quoted above.

The bottom line is God does care for us. God is very much aware of our tears. God is most definitely for us. And, as I have noted before, if God is for us, who can stand against us?

My Takeaway: As I seek to stay in God’s grace for today, I want to be more focused on God who is for me, on God who cares for me, than on me fulfilling my own agenda. With God on my side, why do I waste time and energy worrying?

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Short Prayers

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 10, 2025

Short Prayers

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

Matthew 6:7-8

Verses 7 & 8, quoted above, are Jesus’ introduction to teaching us The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’ prayer is just sixty-two words. It is short and succinct. It is the exact opposite of babbling prayers that repeat words again and again.

Max Lucado, in his book, When God Whispers Your Name, has a list of short statements that I believe can graciously inform our prayers.

Pray all the time. If necessary, use words.

God forgets the past. Imitate him.

Greed I’ve often regretted. Generosity – never.

Don’t ask God to do what you want. Ask God to do what is right.

No one is useless to God. No one.

Nails didn’t hold God to a cross. Love did.

You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.

My Takeaway: We often close our worship service by praying, Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest). This prayer, only twice as long as the Lord’s Prayer, extolls the virtues, the grace and mercy, of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. I’ve found it helpful to graciously inform my prayer life.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 9, 2025

Prevenient Grace

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 9, 2025

Prevenient Grace

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him

the sins of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

Isaiah 53 is a beautiful prophesy for Christ Jesus, God’s Messiah, and our savior!

In verse 6, quoted above, Isaiah reveals our condition, and he also reveals God’s solution to our condition. God took the first step in our redemption by laying on Jesus the sins of us all. Perhaps the most beloved of all the theological terms in my spiritual lexicon, is Prevenient Grace. John Wesley used this term to describe how God goes before us, God reaches out to us, even before we are aware of God, to warm our hearts to receive his revelation of saving grace.

Throughout the Bible, and especially in places like Philippians 1:6, and 2:13, it is clear God continues to take the first step in forming Christ within us, throughout our lives:

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

My Takeaway: As I seek the life in Christ as my way of life, I want to remain firmly in God’s grace for each day. I am helped, and comforted, in this quest by the truth that God is continually working in my life, He is continually taking the first step, to form me into a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Friday, June 6, 2025

Carried Along in God’s Grace

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 6, 2025

Carried Along in God’s Grace

I will be your God throughout your lifetime—

until your hair is white with age.

I made you, and I will care for you.

I will carry you along and save you.

Isaiah 46:4

Recently, I was asked my age. I slyly replied I was “Plus eight.” Recalling that Psalm 90:10 puts the human lifespan at “three score and ten” (KJV) I am plus eight years. Even so, I hold dearly to the promise of God that “I will be your God throughout your lifetime.”

Not long ago, Cheryl and I had the opportunity to spend time with a person who had received a terminal diagnosis. We listened carefully, and when asked questions we responded with the Godly wisdom we had gained in decades of pastoral ministry, which includes sitting with scores of saints preparing to pass into God’s glory. We both departed from this encounter with a deep awareness that God isn’t through with us. Our Gracious Master is indeed carrying us along.

My Takeaway: I am acutely aware of my long list of things I will not get to do again. Age has a way of narrowing our focus. I am also very much aware of what I can, though Jesus, still offer in service to my Lord. Taking comfort in He who made me, and He who will care for me, helps me stay in the grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Thursday, June 5, 2025

The Supremacy of Christ

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 5, 2025

The Supremacy of Christ

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

for through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can’t see—

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:15-16

This beautiful passage on the Supremacy of Christ, Colossians 1:15-20, is some of the most beautiful and profound prose in the entire Bible. Please, take time today to sit before this passage and allow God to speak deeply into our soul.

I understand this passage as describing in part the theology of creation in Genesis 1-3, as God lovingly looking at a world that did not exist and speaking it into being through the power of His Word.

God’s creative order has been especially beautiful of late in my part of the world. Spring has sprung, the hummingbirds have returned and all throughout our yard the colors of the rainbow are replicated in our blooming flowers. Our part of the world, Western North Carolina, was devastated by the storm Helene last September. She left countless scars across our landscapes. This spring, God is repairing the damage and restoring the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains we so dearly love.

My Takeaway: Yes, everything was created through Jesus and for Jesus, but also created for us, as God made us stewards of His creation. I am blessed to see so many signs of Jesus’ creative genius all around me, and I am learning to allow His creation to ground me in his grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Lies vs. Truth

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 4, 2025

Lies vs. Truth

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”

1 Corinthians 3:19-20

Bishop N.T. Wright has said the world is telling us a pack of lies about who we are, who God is and who our neighbors are. But God in Christ Jesus is telling us the truth. I have found it very helpful in my journey to make the life in Christ my way of life to often recall this phrase from Wright. On Monday of this week, I affirmed the importance of remembering who, and whose, we are. Imbedded in this affirmation is the assurance that the One to whom we belong has three bedrock qualities in relating to his children: He will not lie to us; He will not tempt us; and He will not motivate us through guilt.

The older I get, the more important it is for me to be completely grounded on the wisdom of God teaching me the truth of my God, of myself, and of my place in this world. Political leaders, both red and blue and all the colors in between, all have a take on the state of the world, and their expectation of how I should fit into their plans. Bah humbug to their expectations! Their expectations are foolishness to God!

My Takeaway: Only one truth matters to me: “You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” (1 Corinthians 3:23) Yes and amen. This truth grounds me in God’s grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The Secret of Living

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 3, 2025

The Secret of Living

I have learned the secret of living . . .

Philippians 4:12b

Immediately after starting the phrase above, the Apostle Paul added, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) How did Paul learn the secret of living and that he could do all things through the strength of Christ?

In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, Paul catalogs the many ways he has experienced the faithfulness of Christ giving him strength and thus learned the secret of living:

Put in prison often, whipped times without number, faced death again and again, five times given thirty-nine lashes, three times beaten with rods, stoned once, three times shipwrecked, once spent a night and a day adrift at sea, traveled many long journeys, faced danger from rivers and from robbers, faced danger from the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles, faced danger in the cities, in deserts, and on the seas, faced danger from men who claim to be believers but were not, worked hard and long, endured many sleepless nights, been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food, and shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

I have also experienced difficulties in life, but my experiences pale in comparison to Brother Paul.

My Takeaway: Our Lord Jesus proved his faithfulness to Saint Paul, and to countless others in the unseen cloud of witnesses that surround us and intercede for us. Our Lord Jesus has and will continue to prove his faithfulness to me as I seek to stay in his grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Monday, June 2, 2025

Your Workmanship Is Marvelous

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

June 2, 2025

Your Workmanship Is Marvelous

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:14 (NRSV)

The NLT renders today’s verse as,

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Both translations end verse 14 with a personal affirmation of owning God’s wonderful work in their creation, i.e.,

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. (v.14b NLT)

As I read these translations this morning, I sensed God asking me, “Well son, what do you say about my creation of you?” This question stung a bit, for as you know, one of my favorite prayers includes the line, “My life belongs to God. By creation and redemption, I belong to God.” In the ten thousand times I have said that phrase, I cannot recall ever adding,

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

I believe these words are not just expressing the heart of the psalmist. I believe it is the desire of God’s heart that all his children own that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. And to this affirmation we add, “Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.” (v 14b NRSV)

My Takeaway: Owning who and whose we are enables us to stay in the grace for today, and I believe it releases us to live out the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Wondrous, Overwhelming, Amazing, Incredible, Extraordinary, Grace

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Your Innocence Radiates Like the Dawn

Monday, June 16, 2025

So Christ Has Truly Set Us Free

Friday, June 13, 2025

The Choice

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Created To Be Like God

Created To Be Like God

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

God Is on My Side

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Short Prayers

Monday, June 9, 2025

Prevenient Grace

Friday, June 6, 2025

Carried Along in God’s Grace

Thursday, June 5, 2025

The Supremacy of Christ

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Lies vs. Truth

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The Secret of Living

Monday, June 2, 2025

Your Workmanship Is Marvelous

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