Growing in grace (4)

Let's continue with chapter 6 of Grace of Giving.

We can be strong in that grace which is ours in our union with Jesus! First of all, we have to be very serious in our relationship with Jesus. Just having Him as one of our acquaintances, along with many others, is not the unity that the Bible speaks about. Unity involves a bond that cannot be broken, not even for a little while, for whatever excuse we have. Second of all, we have to exercise our walk in grace. Second Peter 3:18   says, Continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We must continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of him, just like Jesus and the early disciples did. It is not enough to accept God’s gift of grace, say thank you, and store it with the rest of all our stuff. That would be the way of the thief! The Bible calls for a new lifestyle. We must turn away from our sinful lives and grow in grace! We have to grow in the grace by using it, giving it out, and, in doing so, multiplying it. Paul emphasized this in 2 Corinthians 6:1, As God’s fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain!

We can tap into God’s grace if we are sincere about becoming givers, the way Jesus had in mind when he spoke to the rich young guy. The man did not have the strength to do it; but then, he denied the invitation to become a disciple of Jesus. He was not in unity with him; he wasn’t willing to give it all. Is our attitude towards Jesus right? Is our commitment to live according to his teaching sincere? Jesus said in John 14:23, Whoever loves me will obey my teaching. We can become cheerful givers if we stop trying with our own strength. We have the example of Jesus, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God.

We can start off with self-disclosure. Check your attitude: see in what areas you are holding on to things. Evaluate your relationship with God. Is it a vibrant friendship, or are you bored with him? Is honesty a basis in your relationship with him? Reread the Scriptures that talk about giving and grace. Feed your spirit with Jesus’s teaching by meditating on his words, by reading it aloud, and by talking things over with him. Last but not least, check your giving. Pray over your money, bless it, and give to God what belongs to him. For starters, bring ten percent of your paycheck to the church that feeds you, your storehouse. Do so before you spend it on anything else, and watch God at work.


Be joyful in your giving, and you will notice you have entered that experience called grace.

Growing in grace (3)

In the previous post I wrote about God's grace not being a one-time moment of truth, but an ongoing experience in our lives. We need to continually live and grow in grace, the apostle Paul understood that and wrote about it extensively. So, let's go back to Chapter 6 of Grace of Giving:

Paul is gentle in his attitude towards the Corinthians; maybe he knew giving was a delicate subject. In 2 Corinthians 8:8 (NIV) he says, I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. Paul speaks the language of the Spirit, especially concerning God’s law. He no longer barks God’s commandments at his listeners: do this, don’t do that, and shut up. No, he explains the new way of obeying God to them. It is no longer about obeying a set of rules; it is all about fulfilling them in a manner of love! Romans 7:6 sums up Paul’s new way of looking at things, No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit. 

No longer is he trying to tell people what to do (remember that once he was a zealous Jew, a Pharisee, committed to the law), no longer is he driven by the outward signs of religion. Instead of stuffing the Ten Commandments down people’s throats, he urges people to change their minds, to obey God from the inside out, and to be sincere in their love for God and others. He measures the level of their giving with the sincerity of their love. 

Paul experienced God’s grace firsthand; he writes about it all the time. He saw God’s grace in many aspects of life, not just in giving. Grace, God’s free and unmerited favor, can be found throughout the history of mankind. The Bible talks about the spirit of grace, the message of grace, the grace of God, the throne of grace, and so on. 

You may wonder how to actually live in that grace and how to benefit from it. How do you know if you have received God’s grace? Listen, It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)  God poured out his grace on mankind—on you and me. If it weren’t for his grace, we wouldn’t be here! God has showed us favor, even in times when we rebelled against him when we were still sinners. God poured out his grace on mankind when he gave up his Son as a sacrifice for our wrongdoing. Grace is invisible, yet it is evident in everything God has done for us! Second Timothy 2:1 tells us that grace is ours. As for you, my son, be strong through the grace that is ours in union with Christ Jesus. 

We can be strong in that grace which is ours in our union with Jesus! 

Growing in grace (2)

In the previous post I wrote about God's grace not being a one-time moment of truth, but an ongoing experience in our lives. We need to continually live and grow in grace, the apostle Paul understood that and wrote about it extensively. So, let's go back to Chapter 6 of Grace of Giving:

We need to learn to be aware of his grace in our life, which will save us a lot of trouble because it is not a one-time moment of truth, it is an ongoing experience in our lives! The Apostle Paul knew that as no other. He opens the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans with the following words: Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. 

Paul simply states that by faith we can live in God’s grace; he calls it an experience. Living in God’s grace is something that will manifest itself in our lives for others to see. God’s grace is a power that will back up the work we do, it will keep us from failing. Grace does not mean that we can rest on our lazy behinds and let God do all the work. Praying, “God, make me a giver,” without taking any action is not going to change anything. God’s grace will help us to become givers when we start working on it. The Apostle Paul must have experienced this quite clearly in his own life, because he describes the process in a few sentences in 1 Corinthians 15:10: But by God’s grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God’s grace working with me. 

God’s grace is working with him! That is the key to success. If we stop fighting our battles and struggling all alone, and we accept God’s grace then it will work with us! We need to team up. Success is guaranteed! From a human point of view, it is almost impossible to become a true giver in God’s kingdom; we have to let go of so many sacred cows. With the help of God’s grace, however, we are able to do this.

It truly helps to no longer look at God’s commandments as outward rules but rather as inward change. With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to change our perspective and attitude from “thou shall not steal,” to “I want to give.” John 1:17 makes it clear: God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Trying to work this out without accepting the grace that Jesus freely offers us is futile. It just won’t work. With God’s grace, however, we can expect miracles, and we will recognize his mighty hand in every situation like the Apostle Paul did when he started off with telling the people in Corinth about the grace that God had given to the Macedonian churches (2 Corinthians 8).

It turned out they gave large gifts, much more than Paul expected, although they were poor. Paul recognizes the grace of God in this; the people could never have done that of their own accord. In verse 7 he encourages the folks in Corinth to start living in that grace too. But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. Wow, they must have been a super church; somewhat like many churches in America, excelling in faith, speech, knowledge, earnestness, and love. Yet, they had been missing an important point: the grace of giving. He urges them to use this gift from God. If we are serious in leaving the way of the thief behind and becoming true givers we will need to use it too.

Growing in grace (1)

During his devotional time my husband received some words of instruction for the season we are living in. One of the things was: study and live grace. The Bible is full of scriptures on grace, so that will keep us busy for a while :) We also ordered some books about grace (Philip Yancey, Joseph Prince etc.) which we will read and discuss together. We furthermore decided to read and re-read the chapter I wrote about grace in my newest release Grace of Giving. I thought it would be helpful and inspirational to share parts of that grace chapter on this blog. Although I wrote it specifically on the subject of giving, it contains many nuggets applicable to our life in general. I can only hope it will be an encouragement to you. So here we go:

Chapter 6

The grace of giving

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)

It is one thing to leave the way of the thief behind and another thing to become a true giver; to follow in Jesus’s footsteps and give it all you’ve got. It is one thing to say, “I do not steal,” but another thing to say, “I am a giver.” How can giving become a desire of our hearts?  How can giving become part of our new nature?

Let me ask you the following question: how can a sinner become righteous in God’s eyes? How can we, as human beings, share in God’s glory? One simple answer: grace. It is God’s grace that makes many things possible for mankind. Grace is a word that we don’t hear much outside the church, yet it is so powerful! Favor, mercy, or goodwill are more commonly used. The Penguin English Dictionary  describes grace as follows: supernatural power given by God to the soul to enable it to attain virtue and salvation. Grace is another one of God’s gifts to us! Grace is God’s free favor on our lives; we did not do anything to deserve it. When we receive that gift, we can start using it to overcome difficult situations. The dictionary says it is a supernatural power. The Bible explains more extensively what grace is and what it can do in our lives.

Jesus, for example, had God’s grace on his life. Luke 2:40 (NIV) talks about Jesus’s childhood: And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Grace was upon him, that tells me grace is something extra, almost like a gift from God. God’s grace was upon Jesus when he was a child. While growing older, the grace of God was no longer just upon him, but it filled him! That tells me Jesus grew in grace; he became full of it! The opening chapter of John’s gospel contains the following statement in verse 14, The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.

Now, God did not just reserve his grace for Jesus; he gave it also in abundance to the believers, starting off with the first disciples. Acts 4:33 (NIV) tells us that “much grace was upon them all” in the same way as it was in the beginning upon Jesus. However, the disciples grew in grace too. A couple of chapters later (Acts 6:8 NIV) the martyr Stephen for example is introduced as follows, Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Grace was not just upon him, but it filled him!

Grace is so much more than a simple gift or a blessing; it is a power. God’s grace does not stop at our salvation; we can continue to live in it and grow in it. Once we become conscious of his grace, his undeserved favor in our lives, we will find out that it will help us conquer and control many difficult situations. As human beings, we have a tendency to depend on our own strength, to fight our battles all alone. We don’t have to do that because God’s grace is there to sustain us. We need to learn to be aware of his grace in our life, which will save us a lot of trouble because it is not a one-time moment of truth, it is an ongoing experience in our lives!