Grace For The Journey

  Everyone wants to know the secret to making lasting change.

Most people believe that the secret is willpower . . .

Until they discover that their “will”

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!

Oh sure, 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

That we will 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, “For 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 a changed life.

When a compelling love for God inspires us to engage in spiritual warfare against the forces that want to defeat us, or keep us down, God’s power to change perseveres and becomes lasting change.  We resist the temptations to sin simply because 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!

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 candidly answered, “Not as much as I’d like,” perhaps you need a clearer vision of Mount Calvary, where the Son of God 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.”