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Grace that Grows?

Grace that Grows?

Words of Faith 3-26-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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2 Peter 3

    [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

 

     A final thought.  Just how do we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? 

     The knowledge of the Lord Jesus grows in our life like in any relationship.  The more time that we spend with Jesus, the more our knowledge of Him grows.  If we spend no time with Him, we cannot really say that we know Him more and more.  We also grow in our knowledge of Him through the study and meditation upon His Word.  He is the Word made flesh.  His Word is our chief point of contact for knowing Him and growing in our knowledge of Him.

      But grace is different.  Grace does not grow.  Grace is always sufficient, never larger, or smaller.  Grace is the constant unmerited favor of God expressed toward us in Jesus.  We cannot expand it or reduce it.  We can only expand our openness to it and our experience of it. It does not grow, but we can grow in it.  And just how does this happen?

      We experience the grace of the Lord Jesus when we are saved and as we are sanctified or shaped into the image of Christ.  As we experience the forgiveness and healing of Jesus in our lives, we grow in His grace.  We know more of His grace not because there is more but because we have benefited more or received more. We become more and more convinced of the wonder of His grace.  We become more and more confident and amazed by His grace.

       We especially grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus when we go through difficult times.  In the tough times and trials of life, we open ourselves more and more to the mercy of the Lord and discover a realm of His grace that we never imagined could exist.  When we are weak, He is strong.  When we surrender, He is sufficient.  When we falter, He carries us.  The same grace is always there, but in the tough times, we finally stop leaning on our own strength and experience His sustaining grace.

        A prayer to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus is not necessarily a "bless me" prayer.  There will be blessing, but it may come through some hardship or difficulty that will cause us to depend evermore upon His strong character and grace. 

 

         Lord Jesus, grow me in my experience of Your grace and in my knowledge of You, Your character and Your love.  In Jesus' Name.

 

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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