Wednesday May 11, 2011

Read Hebrews 13:9-17

Imagine standing next to a man born blind. He asks you, ‘Would you please describe the colour green to me?’ That’s a tough one isn’t it. What if a deaf woman asked you what the sound of laughter was like. How would you answer? When we talk about grace and the effect it is to have in our hearts, we face a similar dilemma. We are trying to describe something so different and unimaginable, something which our hearts have longed for but have not experienced.

Grace is God’s love poured out into our lives. It is His undeserved favour that adopts us as His beloved children. This love strengthens our hearts.  As the writer to the Hebrews says, ‘It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no use to those who eat them.’ Our hearts are strengthened by grace. Sometimes it’s like eating food. The food enters our stomach and strengthens us despite what we do or don’t do. Often the grace of God will overwhelm us and cause us to sing praise and glory to God.  At other times, it will reduce us to tears of joy and adoration. But then, sometimes we need to meditate upon the grace of God. Meditation, biblically speaking, is not sitting like a pyramid and chanting. That’s evil and to be avoided at all costs. Christian mediation means thinking deeply upon the truths of God spelled out in His Word. Here are some ideas to help you meditate upon God’s grace:-

¥ Find a quiet, peaceful and comfortable spot where you can read the Word, pray and praise without being interrupted.

¥ Put some soft music of praise in the background.

¥ As you sit and quieten your thoughts you can sing along in adoration and praise to God.

¥ Read a short passage on the grace of God verbally.

¥ Spend time opening your heart to the grace of God by asking God to lead you, to change you and fill you with His grace.

¥ Praise Him for the grace mentioned in the verse/passage.

¥ Praise God for His grace in your own life.

¥ If you’re mind wanders, don’t punish yourself. Simply come back to praising and adoring God.

¥ Think about the various situations or circumstances of your life at present and ask God to show you how the grace of God will change you in those circumstances.

¥ Picture yourself walking through those circumstances.

¥ Sing praises to God with the music in the background as often as you like to.

¥ Continually bring your mind back to the grace of God as you wander off to think about issues and problems at present. Use those situations and thoughts to indulge your mind in the grace of God asking yourself, ‘How can I walk through this situation showing the grace of God’.

Sometimes the grace of God is a like a vitamin tablet. While it sits in the jar in the cupboard it is absolutely of no value to us. While our Bibles remain closed and sit on the shelf, the grace of God will not aid us. We need to ingest it just like that tablet. What can you be doing to grow in the grace of God? How can you build in time each day to meditate upon the grace of God? What seeds can you be sowing today so that God’s grace blossoms in your life tomorrow?

Prayer:-

V  Pray for the work of Shiloh Church Ministries. Ask God to bless them with adequate resources to house the believers and orphans. Pray that the schools that teach skills to women would continue to be well funded and reach many with the gospel. Pray that we’d see the gospel bear much fruit through their ministry.

V Continue to uphold the team planning to go to India and the team planning to go to Burma. Pray that we would see much work completed in both areas and that God’s grace would flow outwards to the non believers.