Grace For The Journey

  Today’s blog highlights two gifts beyond measure . . . two gifts which are a source of unimaginable comfort to all those who belong to the King of ages.

The Bible says in Psalm 84:11, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory.”

What an extraordinary promise!  As the sun gives light and a shield protects, the Lord will give grace and glory.  This truth is so significant that we need to take time to unwrap it.

Notice first, God gives His children grace.  This grace . . .

• Raises the dead sinner to life.
• Pardons all his sins
• Brings him into the family of faith
• And gives him abundant and forever life.

This is the grace of justification – In Jesus, God the Father regards you just as if you had never sinned and just as if you had always and only done what is right!

But there is more . . . so much more!

God not only gives grace, He also gives glory.

Do you see the incredible promise in this truth?  Glory can only be realized on the other side of the grave.  So when God gives us His grace, He continues giving grace until we are finally and fully received into our heavenly estate.

Charles Spurgeon wrote: “The little conjunction ‘and’ in this verse is a diamond rivet binding the present with the future: grace and glory always go together.  God has married them, and none can divorce them.  The Lord will never deny a soul glory to whom He has freely given to live upon His grace; indeed, glory is nothing more than grace in its Sabbath dress, grace in full bloom, grace like autumn fruit, mellow and perfected.”

The promise inherent in God’s grace is the final state of glory.  God always finishes what He begins and what He began in you He will one day finish.  With Paul, we can be “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it” (Philippians 1:6).  And that completed state is to be glorified.

Do you see the incredible power in this promise?

The fact that God began His work in you is the guarantee that He will finish it.  Your glorified state is not in your hands and will not be achieved in your strength.  Glory is the gift you have been promised by God, and nothing will get in the way of Omnipotence completing what it started . . . and that includes you!

Regardless of what you are struggling with today, there is a day coming when all your struggles will end:

• Every foe vanquished.
• Every storm stilled.
• Every fire doused.
• Every obstacle overcome.
• Every sickness cured.
• Every problem solved.
• Every Jordan crossed.

God is not finished with you yet.  And if He chooses to bless you through sunshine or rain . . . clouds or clear skies . . . pain or pleasure, you are being perfected for that great day of perfection.

To know that God never gives grace without glory is to know that a day is coming when there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sin, and no more death.  What once was will no longer be, and the saints glorified by His grace will reign with Him forevermore!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”