Appropriating the Grace of God 1

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Romans 4:16 (KJV) Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all

Lara was brought before a kind judge when she was charged for "breaking and entering" for the 3rd time. She was homeless. She ran away from the foster home the government placed her because her foster parents hated her. She was to be sentenced to prison because she had just turned 18, but when the judge heard her story, he had mercy on her. He did not sentence her to prison but ruled that she should pay a small fine. After the court session, he told his office assistant to give her the money for the fine. He was also willing to pay for her to go to a vocational school in the city. This was going to cost thousands of dollars but he was willing to pay because she reminded him of his daughter that died of cancer several years ago.

Lara obtained mercy from the judge and collected the money to pay the court-mandated fine, but she did not believe that the judge was truly going to pay for her to go to that expensive vocational school so she never showed up again. The judge waited and waited for her to come to his office the next day as she was advised, but she never showed up again because she did not believe that the judge was going to be so gracious to her.

Mercy was the judge pardoning her. Grace was the judge offering to pay for her to go to school. She obtained mercy but she did not appropriate grace because she did not believe what was promised.

From today's Bible verse, we can see that if something is of grace, it has to be [received] by faith. In order to receive grace, we need faith to connect to it. This is why Scripture says "[f]or by grace are you saved through faith… "(Ephesians 2:8). The way by which we connect to the grace of God is through faith. God's mercy is the reason we are not consumed but have the privilege and access to grace (Lamentations 3:22), but in order for us to take advantage of grace, we need to have [living] faith.

Here's how grace works. God has given us great and exceeding promises that are tokens through which we can access dimensions of His extravagant grace (see 2 Peter 1:4). In order for us to walk in these dimensions of grace, we have to believe these promises, and act according to what we believe. For example, God has given us promises that if we believe them, we would walk in divine healing and health. But in order for us to appropriate this dimension of grace(divine health), we have to steadfastly believe those promises and act according to what we believe.

Go into today remembering that you are saved by grace through faith. Fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). Don't let the devil steal your faith because faith is the way by which you connect to grace.

Prayer: Lord, help me exercise the required faith to receive all the benefits of your grace towards me. Amen.

—Abraham Dami Arigi

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Bible in One Year: Job 33-34 (In Devotional Audio)

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