All Grace, All Things, All Times

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” — 2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV

Living in grace means living dependent on God. Grace is when we receive something we didn’t earn. When we think of the grace of God for salvation, we recognize that God offers us something we could never claim on our own: right standing with a holy God. It’s this grace that allows us to live in freedom.

Grace also refers to the way God designed his kingdom to operate. When we enter God’s kingdom of light, we quickly realize that the tools, resources, and mindsets that helped us in our former lives are no longer useful. We can’t bend these old patterns of living to fit into the kingdom of God.

We all enter God’s kingdom completely bankrupt and empty-handed. There’s nothing that we have to offer that makes us useful in the new covenant kingdom of God.

But that’s a good thing.

If we recieve a kingdom of grace, we must also receive a mission of grace. We flourish in the kingdom of God when we live fully from the grace that God supplies through his Holy Spirit. We have to live in the promises he gives, completely relying on God to give us what we need to thrive.

Of course, this is risky, radical, and unprecedented. But we can look at how unbelievably miraculous our salvation is in Christ to get a taste of the kind of lives God calls us to live.

God doesn’t invite us to a salvation moment of grace and then leave us to a lifestyle of striving. Rather, the gift of salvation is our commencement into a lifestyle of grace.

Even so, living in grace is hard work. Where faith rises in the believer, voices of doubt, fear, and deception stir up. This is where the promises of God find their anchor in our souls. We can only choose the way of grace when we faithfully sow the truth of God’s word into our hearts and practice obedience daily.

When you ask God to grow you in grace, he will provide opportunity after opportunity for you to practice abiding in his word and living out your faith. God calls us to live lives that display his ultimate work of grace by the works of grace he does through us. In other words, the more we learn to depend on God, the more we can be entrusted with God’s gifts of grace, and the more the world around us will clearly see God’s grace through us.

It’s a simple, yet profound cycle of overflow.

God, help me to rely on you today and show your love to others. I receive your grace in every area of my life. I trust that you will supply all the grace I need for everything I need all the time. Let my life show your glory as I trust in you.