Abounding Grace

February 5, 2016

Abounding Grace

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”

2 Corinthians 9:8 (NASB)

Jesus was a changed person after his baptism and wilderness experience. He was rock solid in his resolve to seek and do his Father’s will, and he possessed nothing. Jesus exchanged all of his worldly possessions, including his family status, to take upon himself the mantel of Messiah. Yet, in his extreme poverty he was wealthy beyond measure because he became a vessel through which God could lavish His gifts to a hurting world.

Today, God our Father looks at the followers of Jesus and says, “I can do that through you also:  “I am able to make all my grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for all the opportunities to share my grace that I bring across your path.” You’re not sure about this, are you? That’s quite a promise, and you are wise enough to know there is no free lunch! So, what’s the catch?

No catch. God’s promise of his free flowing grace in our lives is always before us. What hinders our participation in His plan of blessing is our attachment to all the worldly charm of our culture. When we fully embrace the Apostle Paul’s attitude, “Christ is all that matters” (Colossians 3:11b), we open our lives to become a Christ-like vessel through which God is able to make all His grace abound to us. I don’t think any mortal person will ever empty themselves the way Jesus did. But we can move in that direction, as Saint Paul so eloquently described in his letter to the Philippians: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him” (Philippians 3:8-9a).

Jesus told the rich man to “Come, follow me. But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions” (Matthew 19:21b-22 Full parable, 19:16-26). Alas, for too many of the followers of Jesus, we have too many possessions and attachments clogging the flow of God’s abounding grace.

Sē’lah

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(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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.