Since I’m prone to procrastination, these can be dreaded words to hear: “Where do you stand?”
Maybe I’m the head of a committee or a project manager with a tough assignment or the teacher of my children who’d rather play with the new baby – and I have to report in on how I’m doing. I have to give an account of where I am with the committee, the project, the teaching. Has there been progress? Has there been enough?
I have to give an account and I’m not sure what I have to say will be pleasing to the one who holds me accountable. It can be enough to make a body nervous.
I’ve been thinking about this lately, focusing on Romans 5:1-2. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
“Where do you stand?”
I stand in grace.
Grace is not permission to be lazy or sloppy or neglectful. It’s not God overlooking my slothfulness. It is His forgiveness for it – which cost Christ His life and separation from the Father. It is His seeing my sin and loving me anyway. It is also His love and power conforming me to be like Jesus.
We often say grace is God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. We get the joy and privilege of heaven because Jesus died for us and rose from the grave. And we get more.
God’s riches also include faith, His promptings, the power from Him to do what He prompts, and the desire to please our gracious Savior. It includes blessings beyond any I can imagine. It includes God’s conforming me– changing me – to be like Jesus.
Where are my feet? Standing in grace! As I walk this path, I walk in grace – in forgiveness and in the God-given ability to be and do as He leads.
I stumble, I fall. I sometimes plop down on the ground and refuse to move. Still, I am in grace. That means I can’t stay a blob on the ground. I am renewed by Him to get up and walk on – and that is a victory.
We live and move and have our being in Him. We stand in grace.
What discouraging lack of progress makes you glad you stand in grace? Walk on!
I read this quote from Oswald Chambers in a devotion today and immediately thought of you. Your encouragement to apply God’s principles allows our “ordered life to confess the beauty of His peace.”
Thanks for rolling up your sleeves and doing what needs doing in the power of the Spirit. Your ministry is an incredible blessing.
“Lord, in my consciousness this morning a crowd of little things presses in and I bring them straight to Your presence. In Your wisdom, say, ‚ÄúPeace, be still!‚Äù and may my ordered life confess the beauty of Your peace. “
Kristin,
Thank you! Thank you for your encouragement; it means so much. Thank you for sharing this with all of us. What wonderful words from Oswald Chambers. The
crowd of things pressing in our minds and lives, going straight to God, relying on His “Peace be still!” and the prayer that the order of my life speak of the beauty of His peace. I’m going to copy that and post it in several places here at home. I needed that. Bless you.