Grace For The Journey

Everyone wants to know the secret to making lasting change.  Most people belief that the secret is willpower . . .

Until they discover that their “will” power

Really has no lasting power!

The Bible makes it crystal clear that the “how” of lasting change will only come through the “why” of lasting change.  In other words, the why is the how!

Yes, it is true, our willpower can initiate change, but it is only temporary.  Most of us have discovered this truth by watching our new years’ resolutions – “This year I’m going to eat right, exercise more, read the Bible more, stop this or that bad habit, pray more, serve more” and so on – falter and fade away.

The reason, of course, is that . . .

Only when the Spirit of God changes

The hearts of Christian believers

Will we ever realize lasting change.

It all comes down to the difference between temporary behavior modification and lasting heart transformation.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “The love of Christ compels us.”

Lasting change will only come through a compelling love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Love for Christ,

Not personal power,

Will propel us

Into the powerful reality

Of a changed life.

When a compelling love for God inspires us to engage in spiritual warfare against the evil and godless forces that want to defeat us and destroy us, only through a passion for Christ and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit will temporary change perseveres and becomes lasting change.  We resist the temptations to sin simply because an understanding of the love of Christ compels us to turn toward God and away from sin.

• Why forgive completely?  Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why serve faithfully?  Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why give generously?  Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why love unconditionally?  Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why obey Christ completely?  Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why seek to honor God in all that we do?  Because the love of Christ compels us!

Bryan Chapell wrote in Holiness By Grace, “A love for God made vital and vigorous by sensing deeply His compassion toward us is the primary means that enables believers to resist Satan.”

The love, mercy, and compassion of Christ is always,

And in every way,

The only compelling why behind every lasting how.

So . . . how is Christ’s love compelling you lately?  If you honestly answered, “Not as much as I’d like,” perhaps you need a clearer vision of Mt. Calvary, where Jesus took your place on the old rugged cross.  If there is no greater love than to lay your life down for someone else, then we need look no further than the cross to keep before us the only WHY we will ever need to be what God is calling us to be.

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.”