Have you ever wondered how we as Christians are supposed to live our daily lives? As you study the Bible you come to know that we should live daily by and in the grace of God. But what does that mean? How do we live by God's grace? Does it mean that we do nothing and just wait for things to "fall" on our laps? I don't think so. We have to take an active part, we must become fully involved in living by grace. However, our involvement develops through ways and means that God has ordained, ways that you or I would have never imagined. There are two characteristics in particular that are essential in living by grace, they are, humility and faith.
In the book of James 4:6 it says that "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". That tells me that the grace of God does not flow into and through lives of self-sufficiency. What do I mean by that, lives that depend upon their own resources and their own abilities, and as I read the verse I take it to mean that those lives are actually resisted by the Lord. So in this context humility admits my/our comprehensive need for God to work in our lives.
The other characteristic is faith. In the book of Romans 5:2 it speaks of Jesus, "through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand." Here we see that the spiritual ground on which we stand in Jesus is a realm of grace. So how do we access that grace? How do we avail ourselves of it in every day Christian living? It is done by faith, by trusting in the Lord, day by day and step by step. In every situation that we may find ourselves daily, whether we need to make a decission or comitt to an action, everything needs to be dealt with by faith. That is what is meant by having total dependance upon the Lord, relying on His word, His provisions, His promises.
In light of all of this then I am to totally surrender to my Lord and trust that He will enable me by faith to live a life of grace.
Source: LICM.
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